Fine Threads, Big Impact: Electrospinning's Contribution to Tissue Engineering in Medicine

We want to make the fascinating field of tissue engineering and biomaterials research understandable, accessible, and thrilling for everyone. We aim to connect theory with real-life biomedical applications, inspiring a passion for STEM studies. In our lab, we're exploring electrospinning technology to create nanofibrous scaffolds for building skin models, but tissue engineering has been proven to be useful for the creation of many other human tissues. During our interactive sessions, participants will get hands-on experience using a cotton candy machine to craft sugar fibers, simulating the electrospinning process. On the other hand, there will be a card game in which the audience will have to pair tissues with scaffold characteristics (stiffness, fiber orientation, etc.) or the other way around. Through these activities, we aim to convey scientific concepts in an approachable manner, accompanied by easy-to-follow experiments.