Engineering Neural Tissue from Stem Cells

Dr. Stephanie Willerth, Ph.D., F.C.S.S.E., F.B.S.E., is a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria, where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She runs an internationally recognized research group focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars in 2021 and received the 2021 Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia’s Teaching Award for Excellence. She founded the award winning start-up company Axolotl Biosciences, which sells high-quality bioinks for bioprinting human tissue models. Dr. Willerth is an active member of the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at Creative Destruction Lab. Dr. Willerth served as the Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria from 2018-2021 and as the President of Canadian Biomaterials Society from 2018-2019. Dr. Willerth is the author of Engineering Neural Tissue from Stem Cells, published by Elsevier Academic Press in 2016.

• 1. The need for engineering neural tissue using stem cells2. Overview of the nervous system3. Stem cells and their applications in repairing the damaged nervous system4. Design considerations when engineering neural tissue from stem cells5. Natural biomaterials for engineering neural tissue from stem cells6. Synthetic biomaterials for engineering neural tissue from stem cells7. Drug delivery systems for engineering neural tissue8. New technologies for engineering neural tissue from stem cells