Tissue engineering is regarded as the ideal end point for interventional surgery – rather than fix a diseased body part, or transplant a foreign organ, it seeks to grow a new replacement using the patient’s own cells.  This overcomes the shortage of suitable donor organs and their risk of rejection by the body.

The human body is comprised of tissues that are made up of cells and a surrounding microenvironment called the extracellular matrix comprising specialised molecules and proteins that are important for cell growth, function and tissue building.  A collagen scaffold provides the tissues with the required organised structure.

Broadly defined, tissue engineering is the development and manipulation of laboratory-grown cells to regenerate, replace or support the function of defective, diseased or injured body parts.  It is a multidisciplinary field of science involving material science, biology, medical practice and engineering.