The Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI) at NC State announced that ISE Associate Professor Binil Starly will take over leadership of the Functional Tissue Engineering (FTE) Program along with Dr. Ke Cheng from the College of Veterinary Medicine. As Associate Directors, they inherit the program from Dr. Frances Ligler who stepped down after two years in the position.
“As a manufacturing engineer, my role would be to identify, develop and find the resources needed to build the key platforms to help translate engineered cell, tissue and organ systems to an industrial scale operation,” explained Dr. Starly. “Such enabling platforms will allow for the automation and standardization of processes involved with either scaling-out or scaling-up these regenerative medicine therapies for eventual impact at the bedside.”
ISE’s Role in the CMI-FTE
Considering production-scale manufacturing issues is an important part of taking tissue engineering discoveries from the research labs to clinical trials. “As industrial and systems engineers, our students will get involved in building advanced manufacturing processes, quality control systems, and studying supply chain issues surrounding delivering functional tissue-engineered products to the bedside,” said Dr. Starly.
Goals for the FTE
Some of Dr. Starly’s goals for FTE are:
- Show collaboration between science, engineering, and clinicians as well as with external collaborators which include industry, government, and national associations to help achieve the broader goals of the CMI.
- Promote the work of FTE faculty and students in national and international forums to help attract recognition for CMI, the colleges, and the university.
- Meet long-term center-based funding through research partnerships, resource, and training grants.
Congratulations Dr. Starly!