This course covers current topics of research interest in bioengineering. The course content may vary from semester to semester.

The human immune system is designed to surveil and respond to foreign material and cells in the human body. As such, almost everything implanted into the body interacts with a component of the immune system. Understanding how the immune system interacts with these materials and cells helps us to design better technologies. Whether it’s a catheter designed to prevent fibrosis, a hip joint engineered to produce minimal macrophage uptake of wear debris, an autologous CAR-T cell designed to cure leukemia or a hypo-immune synthetic organ grown in pigs, all of these technologies are engineered with the immune system in mind. This advanced course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of immune system interactions that are relevant to bioengineering healthcare technologies. We will study immune responses to both bio-materials and cellular transplants. Then, we will explore engineering strategies that can be leveraged to re-direct aberrant immune responses. Briefly, we will study how the immune system recognizes and responds to implanted and injected acellular materials (ie. prosthetics, biosensors, drug delivery tools) to identify design strategies that extend device lifetimes. Next, we will describe the mechanisms of the immune response to transplanted cellular constructs (ie. cell scaffolds, iPSCs) to understand host rejection pathways. Finally, we will explore material, cellular and genetic engineering strategies to develop materials that regulate immune responses (ie. anti-fibrotic modifications, CAR-T cells, hypo-immune xenograft organs). The course includes a technical mid-term and final exam. Additionally, this course will also integrate the fundamentals of critical review of research through review and reports on primary literature through discussion and homework.

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