Nancy Pleshko

Temple University

Host: Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) Student Chapter

Tissue engineering approaches are being developed to restore native tissue and organ function, primarily as a response to the many challenges of regenerating native diseased tissues.  Current gold standard techniques to assess the composition and integrity of engineered and repairing tissues, including histology, biochemical evaluation, and mechanical testing, are destructive, which limits real time monitoring of tissue development.  This is an important area to address, as engineered tissues developed in similar environments can exhibit very different matrix and biomechanical properties. Accordingly, non-destructive techniques to assess engineered tissues during development such that appropriate compositional endpoints can be defined are desirable. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in the mid and near-infrared regions are intrinsically label free, can be non-destructive, and provide specific information on the chemical composition of tissues. The use of spectroscopic techniques for non-destructive assessment and imaging of tissue growth, repair and regeneration, and the potential for clinical translation, will be addressed.