Informatics challenges in tissue engineering and biomaterials.
Both tissue engineering and biomaterials have made tremendous strides recently, yet major questions remain unanswered. Tissue-engineered products have come to the market; others are in development. A fundamental issue that informatics could address for tissue engineering is to describe and to predict the cascade of biochemical and cellular reactions that occur as a function of time and implant material: surface texture, microporosity; pore size, density, and connectivity; and three-dimensional configuration. Behavior of ceramics, a subset of tissue-engineering scaffold materials and a mainstay of dental restorations, has been studied extensively for very thin layers and for thicknesses greater than 2 mm. Until recently, little has been known about dentally relevant thickness of 1-2 mm. Results have been surprising and are continuing to develop. Still, at least one fundamental question remains that could be addressed by informatics techniques: Where, along the spectrum of flat-polished material to 10-year clinical in vivo study, can we test to predict clinical performance of all-ceramic crowns accurately?
Rekow
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Director of Translational Research, New York University, College of Dentistry, 345 East 24th Street, Room 1003 S, New York, NY 10010, USA. edr1@nyu.edu
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D003442:Crowns; D015921:Dental Implants; D003776:Dental Porcelain; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics; D016348:Osseointegration; D013499:Surface Properties; D023822:Tissue Engineering
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D015921:Dental Implants; D003776:Dental Porcelain