Open Source Software for the Automatic Design of Scaffold Structures for Tissue Engineering Applications

Tissue engineering represents a new field aiming at developing biological substitutes to restore, maintain, or improve tissue functions. In this approach, scaffolds provide a temporary mechanical and vascular support for tissue regeneration while tissue in-growth is being formed. The design of optimized scaffolds for tissue engineering is a key topic of research, as the complex macro- and micro- architectures required for a scaffold depends on the mechanical properties, and the physical and molecular stimulations of the surrounding tissue at the defect site. One way to achieve such designs is to create a library of unit cells (the scaffold is assumed to be a repeating, tessellating unit structure), which can be assembled through specific computational tools proposed by several authors. In this research work, an open source software tool for the design of scaffolds is presented.