Lee Weiss - Robotic-Assisted Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that help restore, maintain, or improve tissue function or a whole organ. Tissue engineered constructs are typically composed of various combinations of exogenous signaling molecules and cells delivered in biodegradable scaffolds. Numerous robotic-related technologies can be applied in the development and deployment of these constructs. Working closely with collaborators from the life sciences and engineering, I am developing several of these technologies, including: digital fabrication using bioprinting; computer vision-based cell tracking; biodegradable electronics; bioMEMS; and, machine learning for guiding experimental design. While these toolsets are generic, our current focus is on applying them to musculoskeletal tissue regeneration.