Tissue Engineering at the MicroScale

The possibility to replace damaged or diseased organs with arti®cial tissues engineered from a combination of living cells and biocompatible scaffolds is becoming a reality through multidisciplinary efforts. A number of critical components within this effort are being facilitated by microfabrication and MEMS approaches, including research tools to elucidate mechanisms which control cellular behavior as well as development of methods to manufacture cellular scaffolds at ever higher resolutions. This article reviews recent advances in tissue engineering that have been facilitated by interaction with the microfabrication community. We highlight the potential opportunities for microfabrication to make to the development of mainstream medical therapies for tissue replacement. Abbreviations. CAD, computer-aided design; ECM, extracellular matrix; PMMA, polymethyl methacrylate; PDMS, polydimethyl siloxane; PLA polylactic acid; PLGA, polylactic (co-glycolic) acid; SFF, solid freeform fabrication; TEMP, tissue engineered medical product.