In order to treat certain illnesses or to help patients back on their feet after a serious accident, doctors depend heavily on tissue engineering. How can a new bone, a new skin, a new artery or even a new organ be created? Research is showing signs of progress but natural mechanisms are so complicated that biologists now need the help of engineers. A work that has been edited under the direction of Liesbet Geris, a researcher from the University of Liege presents the most recent research in the area of modeling applied to the creation of biological tissues.

The most complex machine invented by man - the space shuttle for example – is nothing when compared to a living organism as developed as the human being. With evolution and genetic selection, nature has produced mechanisms of unequalled ingenuity. Moreover, engineers have long since drawn inspiration from nature for the design of machines. Biomimetics today represents an important part of science but it is not new. From the beginning of the 20th century mankind could not find a better solution for learning how to fly than to imitate birds. However, engineers are no longer content just to imitate nature in order to invent new machines. Using their own tools, especially mathematics, they try to unlock the secrets of “biological machines” such as the human body in order to forge advances in medicine. This is the subject of an important new scientific work that has recently been published by Springer under the direction of Liesbet Geris a researcher from the University of Liege (associate professor at the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department of the faculty of applied sciences), entitled Computational Modeling in Tissue Engineering. A large number of scientists from different countries contributed to this book which presents the most up-to-date-research in the area of mathematical modeling applied to the creation of biological tissues.

The human body regenerates its tissues constantly and spontaneously. The bones of your current skeleton are not those that supported you ten years ago. This ability to regenerate bones certainly diminishes with age (after 35 years) but it never disappears completely. Blood cells are also constantly renewed. The liver is also capable of regenerating itself. Some tissues can regenerate very quickly when neccessary, as in the case of damaged skin, for example, which can heal itself in a few days. Unfortunately, in the case of a certain number of illnesses or in the case of severe trauma (complicated fractures during traffic accidents) this natural regeneration can be insufficient. This is the reason why doctors wish to understand how this process works in order to “give nature a helping hand”. Some even go so far as to dream that doctors will one day no longer need organ donors as they will be able to recreate any kind of tissue in a laboratory and, where necessary, to give it the form of an organ: heart, liver, kidney lung…