Neural

Neural Tissue Engineering Research Team

In August 2003, the Neural Tissue Engineering Team was launched by the Georgia Tech Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues. The group’s objective is to capitalize on the synergy created by combining a tissue engineering approach, which provides critical enabling technologies, with a sound systems-level analysis of the nervous system and its pathologies. Its research aims to harness new information underlying molecular events in pathology, developmental neurobiology, and regeneration to design and develop enabling technologies that significantly impact neuropathologies, such as acute central nervous system and peripheral nervous system injuries. 
 
GTEC's Strategy

The Neuro Group's research focuses on three areas: cell technology, construct technology, and integration into living systems. In cell technology, we seek to find proper cell sources and develop cell technologies to promote regeneration and repair of injured neural tissue to create products available off the shelf. In construct technology, we are creating scaffold substitutes that perform similarly to the biological element, both behaviorally and functionally. In integration into living systems, we are engineering components that interact functionally with the biological system. Each of these technologies is evaluated in rigorous test beds to determine efficacy.

he multidisciplinary research group serves as a vehicle to cement existing collaborations and encourage new ones between universities, research centers, and companies. These collaborations are enhanced by the strong faculty in the fields of stem cell technology, biomaterials/scaffolds technology, and neuroscience located at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. Research efforts facilitate the development of clinically relevant technologies and test beds used to evaluate the effectiveness of technology developed within the group, as well as products available on the market.

Future of GTEC's Neural Group

The group is pushing known limits to promote regeneration and repair in the nervous system. We have matched the performance of the current “gold standard”, the autograft, in the peripheral nervous system using a nanofiber-based scaffold. For spinal cord injuries, we are using a variety of strategies that will hopefully surpass the efficacy of current treatments.

Recent Innovations from the Neural Team

Flexible brain electrodes Nanoscale neurointegrative coatings for neural implants Novel oriented 3-D scaffolds for guided, direction-sensitive, tissue regeneration