The discussion centers on the challenges and advancements in drug testing, particularly the transition from traditional animal testing to tissue engineering constructs. Nina Tandon, a prominent tissue engineer, emphasizes the limitations of current methods, such as the lack of accuracy in animal models and the high costs associated with drug testing. Recent developments in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and tissue engineering are highlighted as promising alternatives, although they still face challenges regarding tissue type crossover and side effects. Tandon's interdisciplinary approach combines electrical engineering and biomedical engineering to innovate in this field.
PREREQUISITESBiomedical engineers, pharmacologists, researchers in drug development, and professionals interested in innovative alternatives to traditional drug testing methods.
A Techwise Conversation with Nina Tandon, EE and tissue engineer
BY STEVEN CHERRY // WED, JANUARY 30, 2013
Testing newly developed drugs is utterly necessary, but it’s not without its problems. For one thing, it’s expensive. For another, it’s not very accurate—it usually starts with mice, and they’re not like people in the ways we need them to be. It continues with humans, and often even human subjects are not like the people needing the drug, in the ways we need them to be. And we’re putting those people at risk. And did I mention how expensive it is?
Oh yea, lots of impressive people working on this thing. Her early education seems to have been crucial in it's development, and leads me to wonder how much more inter-disciplinary practices will need to be implemented on the frontier of this type of work. It seems to me that once the research and development has been completed it will be people like her who help "cross the chasm" and really begin to change the world.Ryan_m_b said:*Implies limited input from biologists, that few are working on it, that the whole process of drug testing will be changed rather than an alteration to the pre-animal and animal-stages etc.
Tissue engineer, MBA and Senior TED Fellow Nina Tandon is growing artificial hearts and bones. To do that, she needs new ways of caring for artificially grown cells—techniques she’s developed by the simple but powerful method of copying their natural environments.
Nina studies electrical signaling in the context of tissue engineering, with the goal of creating “spare parts” for human implantation and/or disease models. She is an electrical and biomedical engineer at Columbia University’s Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, and adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union, teaching a “Bioelectricity” class. She’s published in Nature and Lab on a Chip, and Fast Company named her one of their 100 most creative people in business.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cooper Union, Nina spent her early career in telecom (Avaya Labs) and transitioned into biomedical engineering via her Fulbright scholarship in Italy, where she worked on an electronic nose used to “smell” lung cancer. Nina’s studied electrical stimulation for cardiac tissue engineering at MIT and Columbia, has consulted at McKinsey and Company, and now continues her research on electrical stimulation for broader tissue-engineering applications.