ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 28, 2003 -- The first textbook on tissue engineering has been published by Pearson Prentice Hall with funding from The Whitaker Foundation.

Co-authors Bernhard Palsson and Sangeeta Bhatia received a foundation Teaching Materials Award to complete the 407-page book on a complex field that holds great promise for repairing or replacing damaged organs.

The book, entitled Tissue Engineering, is aimed at both the undergraduate and graduate student in biomedical engineering.

"We have attempted to provide a conceptual framework that includes exposure to all of the necessary background material," the authors wrote in the preface. "Many societal and technical challenges still remain for the field to move forward, and we have highlighted these to the extent possible."

Tissue engineering combines basic biological sciences with engineering fundamentals, clinical aspects, and biotechnology, all of which are covered at a basic level in the text.

The book is divided into four parts that focus on quantative cell and tissue biology, cell and tissue characterization, engineering methods and design, and clinical implementation.

The foundation's Teaching Materials Program, which began in 1995, supports the development of high-quality teaching materials for biomedical engineering. Grants support writing textbooks for core biomedical engineering courses at the undergraduate or early graduate levels and for visionary, seminal books dealing with topics in the field.

The foundation is phasing out its grant programs and closing in 2006. In keeping with that schedule, this program is no longer accepting new applications for funding.

Contact:
Frank Blanchard
(703) 528-2430