About this video

Therapeutic cells and engineered tissues are finding increasingly diverse applications that span regenerative medicine to novel cancer therapeutics. Stem cells may be transplanted to promote endogenous tissue repair, or new biomaterials may be implanted for structured 3D tissue growth. Whatever the target application, it is vital that one can track the cells or materials inside the body to monitor its distribution or retention, degradation, and therapeutic efficacy. Because these materials are often similar to native tissue in composition and structure, tracking requires that they be “labeled” to provide contrast on imaging. In this talk, I will describe new approaches to tracking therapeutic cells and biomaterials that aim to permit long-term and ultimately quantitative monitoring over the lifetime of the materials.