Texts (to be read extensively, on reserve in the library)

Tissue Engineering, by Bernhard O. Palsson and Sangeeta N. Bhatia

Culture of Animal Cells: A Manual of Basic Technique, by R. Ian Freshney

Other References of Interest in the Library

Molecular Biology of the Cell, byBruce Alberts, et al. (general reserves)

Culture of Cells for Tissue Engineering, by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic and R. Ian Freshney

The biomedical engineering handbook, edited by Joseph D. Bronzino

Principles of tissue engineering, edited by Robert P. Lanza, Robert Langer, Joseph Vacanti

Class Mechanics and Words of Wisdom

This is an advanced course. Therefore, I will treat you like advanced students who are self-motivated to learn the material in a self-directed manner – I expect you to act this way.

It is also an experimental course in many ways. Enter this experience knowing that things will go wrong with your experiments. Be prepared to breathe, and then think of creative solutions.

It will be very busy in the beginning due to time constraints. Work with me. The good news is that the workload will be lighter at the end of the semester!

Grading

• Experimental Plan (including draft and revision) –15%

• Full Experimental Proposal (including protocol supplement and disaster relief plan) – 25%

• Laboratory Notebook – 5%

• Final Report – 20%

• Research Presentation – 15%

• Discretionary (teamwork, organization, creativity in response to disaster) –20%

Course Objectives and Desired Outcomes

By the end of the course:

• Students should have a sense of the current tissue engineering literature.
• Students should have gained theoretical and hands-on knowledge of approaches used in tissue engineering.
• Students should be able to write a coherent, well reasoned experimental research proposal.
• Students should be able to write clear experimental cell and tissue culture protocols.
• Students should be able to analyze experimental data and draw conclusions from it.

Competencies

The following competencies will be addressed in this course:
            Qualitative analysis, at the intermediate level
            Quantitative analysis, at the intermediate level
            Communication, at the advanced level
            Life-long learning, at the advanced level
            Teamwork, at the advanced level
            Design, at the advanced level
            Diagnosis, at the intermediate level
            Opportunity Assessment, at the intermediate level
                       
The following competencies may be assessed in this course:           
            Qualitative analysis, at the advanced level
            Quantitative analysis, at the intermediate/advanced level
            Teamwork, at the advanced level
            Communication, at the intermediate level
            Design, at the advanced level
            Diagnosis, at the intermediate level

Assessment

I seek informal feedback at all times. In addition, I will distribute a more formal feedback form mid-way through the semester.

Honor Code

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a way consistent with the Olin honor code.
In this context, I would like to particularly highlight the importance I place on appropriately referencing all ideas and work that is not your own in your papers – to do anything less is academic dishonesty. We will discuss this further in class, please ask me if there are questions.

Time Commitment

This class technically meets for 6 hours per week. However, given the nature of experimental work, at times we will meet as a group and at times you will need to schedule time to run experiments and care for cells on your own. I will attempt to maintain the workload at a reasonable level (an average of 12 hours per week). We will check in periodically to confirm that the workload is appropriate. I do, however expect this course to have a very heavy workload in the beginning with a much lighter load at the end.