Recent Advancements of Immunomodulatory Biomaterials in Cell Therapy and Tissue Engineering

This book presents the recent developments in immunomodulatory biomaterials for cell-based therapies in various diseases, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and bone regeneration. The authors first cover the fundamentals of conventional immunology and immunomodulation, before focusing on the history, advantages, and challenges of cell therapies. Biological cell therapy has gained immense attention for various diseases due to unique advantages it has over chemical drugs regarding cost, ease of production, toxicity, and therapeutic efficacy. However, these cell-based therapies need an inert delivery system that can locally deliver cells and minimally elicit foreign body response. The book discusses the foreign body response to the immunomodulatory biomaterials as well as the current and future strategies for potential mitigation of considerable immune responses toward immunomodulatory biomaterials and devices.

Sudip Mukherjee, Ph.D., MRSC, is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU. Dr. Mukherjee serves as an Associate Editor for BMC Cancer and Frontiers in Chemistry. Dr. Mukherjee is a member of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (MRSC). He has published 4 books and over 50 articles. He has 10 US patents filed/granted and has been part of cell engineering-based technologies that is licensed for clinical trials. His research interests include the development of advanced biomaterials for cell therapy and drug/gene delivery in diabetes, cancer theranostics, angiogenesis, and immunomodulatory applications.Boram Kim is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the Rice University.  She completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Dongguk University and received her master’s degree in Biomedical Science at Soonchunhyang University, where she researched developing biomaterials for tissue engineering and bone regeneration. She has published over 24 research articles. Her thesis work focuses on developing immunomodulatory biomaterials for islet transplantation. She is interested in designing advanced biomaterials and medical devices to improve outcomes in clinical translation for cell-based therapeutics to treat chronic autoimmune diseases.Andrea Hernandez is a graduate student at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in Immunology. She is a recipient of a NIDCR Diversity Supplement, which encourages students from underrepresented backgrounds to work towards a scientific career. In her thesis, Andrea is focusing on using a novel peptide nanofiber hydrogel-based platform for intratumoral delivery of immunomodulatory therapeutics to treat Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancers. She has contributed to more than 5 articles and poster presentations.