Membrane Systems For Bioartificial Organs and Regenerative Medicine

Market: The worldwide demand for organ transplants exceeds available donor organs by far.
Vital necessity: Advances in biomaterials have generated a range of materials and devices for use either outside the body or through implantation to replace or assist functions which may have been lost through disease or injury.
Artificial membranes are a key device in simulating natural organ function, e.g., in blood purification (artificial kidney and dialysis), for liver assist devices, and for gas-exchange in heart-lung machines as the basis for open heart surgery.
Today more than 1 million people are kept alive on blood purification methods.
Regenerative medicine has to make use of bioreactor technology (bioreactors today are closely linked to artificial membranes as scaffolds for cell growth) and tissue engineering membranes.
The book also covers artificial membranes important for drug delivery and controlled release.
Aims and Scope
Membrane processes today play a signifi cant role in the replacement therapy for acute and chronic organ failure diseases. Current extracorporeal blood purifi cation and oxygenation devices employ membranes acting as selective barriers for the removal of endogeneous and exogeneous toxins and for gas exchange, respectively. Additionally, membrane technology offers new interesting opportunities for the design of bioartificial livers, pancreas, kidneys, lungs etc.

This book reviews the latest developments in membrane systems for bioartificial organs and regenerative medicine, investigates how membrane technology can improve the quality and efficiency of biomedical devices, and highlights the design procedures for membrane materials covering the preparation, characterization, and sterilization steps as well as transport phenomena. The different strategies pursued for the development of membrane bioartifi cial organs, including crucial issues related to blood/cell-membrane interactions are described with the aim of opening new and exciting frontiers in the coming decades.

The book is a valuable tool for tissue engineers, clinicians, biomaterials scientists, membranologists as well as biologists and biotechnologists. It is also a source of reference for students, academic and industrial researchers in the topic of biotechnology, biomedical engineering, materials science and medicine.