应有机无机复合材料国家重点实验室、教育部超重力工程研究中心邀请，美国康涅狄格大学魏梅教授于2012年5月31日下午在逸夫中心会议室为重点实验室师生作了题为《Development of novel apatite/collagen scaffolds for bone regeneration》的精彩学术报告，并在报告后的自由提问环节中跟师展开了生动的观点分享和学科应用的交流。
Introduction:Prof. Wei received her Ph.D. degree from the University of New South Wales, Australia. She subsequently did her postdoctoral studies in Kyoto University, Japan and Queensland University of Technology, Australia, respectively. In 2002, she joined the faculty of University of Connecticut as an Assistant Professor. She got early tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2007, and is promoted to full professor this year.
Over the last 20 years, Dr. Wei’s research has been focused on fabrication and characterization of pertinent calcium phosphate-based systems, such as biomimetic apatite/collagen scaffolds, biomimetic apatite coatings, apatite/polymer composites, CaP composite drug delivery systems, biomaterial-cell interactions, and in vivo performance of biomaterials. Dr. Wei has over 70 significant publications in high impact refereed journals. She has also filed 6 patents and published 2 book chapters in the past a few years. She is currently an editorial member of Journal of Biomimetics, Bioinformatics, and Biocomputing. She has also served as a panel member for various federal funding agents, such as NSF, and act as a reviewer for more than 20 refereed journals. She is the recipient of various awards, including Women of Innovation Award, Outstanding Department Member etc.
Abstract: The newly emerged field of tissue engineering has provided a major potential to repair and regenerate bone using a combination of scaffold matrix and bone progenitor cells. Despite of the early success in bone tissue engineering, many currently existing bone scaffolds still suffer from poor osteoconductivity, poor mechanical properties, and inappropriate degradation rate. Thus, there is a pressing need to produce a bone tissue engineering scaffold which can well-support progenitor cell activities, have good mechanical properties and have its degradation rate match that of new bone in growth. It is generally believed that such a scaffold will greatly enhance bone repair and regeneration. Currently, the Wei research group at the University of Connecticut has developed a novel lamellar biomimetic bone scaffold with all required properties stated above. In the present talk, the scaffold fabrication technique, microstructure, in vivo performance, and in situ cell-scaffold interaction in living animal will be discussed.