Morphogenesis and tissue engineering

Morphogenesis regulates the generation, maintenance, and renewal of tissues and organs throughout the lifetime, ensuring their normal biological functions. In tissues, cell behavior is tightly controlled at the cellular and molecular levels, particularly via interactions between cells and with the extracellular matrix, which provides physical, chemical, and biological signals. Understanding and mimicry of morphogenetic mechanisms is essential to the field of tissue engineering that aims at restoring tissue function upon damage or disease. Current strategies in tissue engineering focus on the delivery of cells, material scaffolds, soluble bioactive molecules (e.g., morphogens) or a combination of those to provide effective clinical therapies to major challenges of regenerative medicine.