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Fifteen Eighty Four

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11
Jun
2020

Understanding Biomaterials Science and Tissue Engineering

Bikramjit Basu

In 2005, when I started my move from Engineering Ceramics to Biomaterials, I was looking for a text, which covered the core principles of Biomaterials Science to a novice without any academic training in biology. I started reading the available books and those either an edited compilation on many not-so-well-aligned topics or focusing only on advanced topics in the field. While advising the first generation of students in my group and interacting with hundreds of students pursuing this field of research globally, I truly recognised the need for a comprehensive text that covers the fundamental principles and methods of both Materials and Biological Sciences to an appropriate extent, which can make the students most comfortable to understand the foundation of this important subject.

Biomaterials Science and Tissue Engineering are truly interdisciplinary fields (see Fig. 1), and I wrote the text Biomaterials Science and Tissue Engineering: Principles and Methods in such a way that the reader could grasp the requisite fundamental concepts, without having any formal training in either Materials or Biology domain. For example, the text is intended to enable non-biologists to understand the fundamentals of living systems in order to sufficiently understand the subject of in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility.


Fig. 1. Schematic illustration to illustrate the fact that Biomaterials Science is at the cross-roads of multiple disciplines or sub-disciplines.

The book’s key features that I am sure instructors and students will appreciate are discussions on important paradigms, such as the advantages and performance-limiting characteristics of important classes of materials, critical discussions of approaches, such as evaluating how relevant they are to large scale application, engaging images, and boxed messages. Aspects of efficacious design and manufacturing are addressed in a way that should stimulate the reader’s thinking on current issues in the field today. A number of problem sets (multiple-choice questions, fill in the blanks, review questions, numerical problems and solutions to selected problems), and case studies are given which can be the basis for group assignments and interactive classroom teaching.

I believe that the book expounds an integrated understanding of biomaterials science and tissue engineering, which covers merits and caveats of approaches, paradigm shifts, futuristic objectives and exciting possibilities for frontier research on materials, such as those with versatility and tunable properties. The book also features a discussion on translational challenges, involving clinicians and education and training of the next generation of researchers.

About The Author

Bikramjit Basu

Bikramjit Basu is currently a Professor at the Materials Research Center and holds Associate Faculty position at Center for Biosystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of ...

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