Biodegradable scaffold with built-in vasculature for organ-on-a-chip engineering and direct surgical anastomosis.

Professor Milica Radisic has been announced as the lead recipient of a major research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The funding will help train the next generation of experts in new treatments for disease based on lab-grown human tissues.

Under a microscope at U of T Engineering, heart cells are pulsing together in a petri dish. For Professor Milica Radisic (IBBME, ChemE) and her team, it’s just another day in the lab.

Although they are grown outside the body, the human tissues engineered in Radisic’s lab look and behave just like the real thing. Now, thanks to a new startup company co-founded by Radisic, they are helping drug companies test their products for dangerous side effects.