To grow clusters of human stem cells that mimic organs in the lab and might be used someday in tissue implants, Bill Murphy, a UW-Madison professor of biomedical engineering, creates tiny scaffolds made of plastic or rubber.
The three-dimensional scaffolds must support the cells and feed them, help them organize and allow them to communicate.
One spring day in 2014, Murphy looked out his office window near UW Hospital, onto the university’s Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and saw a structure that does those very things naturally: plants — specifically, cellulose, the main component of the cell walls of green plants. Read the full story here.
Bill Murphy spoke on the topic of stem cell research at our Tech Council Innovation Network luncheon in May of 2016.
;
