Winter 07: New Voices at BME

Rensselaer’s junior biotech faculty tackle everything from back pain to biophotonics


Jan Stegemann
Jan Stegemann: Engineered Tissue the Natural Way

Engineered Tissue the Natural Way

Jan Stegemann makes new tissue out of proteins—and watches how cells react to it. The result could be a whole array of cell-based therapies that work where all else fails.

Since coming to Rensselaer in 2002, Stegemann has taken this fundamental activity into exciting directions. He is developing an engineered substitute for blood vessels by embedding vascular cells in collagen- or fibrin-based scaffolds.  His team is using carbon nanotubes to make collagen electrically conductive, with potential uses in biosensors. And his study of adult stem cells—and how they can be used to form bone tissue—recently won a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

This is an image of beads that we made of pure collagen. We embed cells in these beads to control their function.  FN Beads: These are beads similar to those in the Col beads image, except they also have the protein Fibronectin in them, and the fibronectin has been labeled to fluoresce red.

Figure 1: Collagen Beads: Cells are embedded into the beads to control function. These beads are currently being used in cell-based therapy for bone repair project.

Figure 2: FN Beads: Similar to the collagen beads, except FN Beads also have the protein Fibronectin—shown in fluoresce red.  Also used in the bone repair project.
Bioreactor system

Bioreactor system used to apply cyclic mechanical strain to the engineered tissue constructs made in the lab.

“We are developing the stem-cell research into a cell-based therapy for hard-to-treat bone healing problems, specifically avascular necrosis and spinal fusions,” Stegemann said.  

In many cases, “hard to treat” may be an understatement—and therein lies the value of Stegemann’s work. “There are some things that can only be ‘cured’ with the use of living cells,” he said. “That is why I believe cell-based therapies will be critical in the future.”