Tissue engineering: new tools for old problems

Abstract

More than 20 years have passed since Langer and Vacanti wrote the landmark paper defining the field of Tissue Engineering. In that paper, Tissue Engineering (TE) was described as a field having an interdisciplinary approach to create biological substitutes that would restore or enhance the function of tissues or organs [1]. At the time, the authors identified as critical points for the success of the field the issues of cell sourcing and of the materials used to engineer the substitutes. Since then, the field of Tissue Engineering has seen amazing advancements in the attempt to address those issues.