Biomedical Engineering Research Assistant, Rui Fang, wins second for Viewer’s Choice in Images of Research Competition
The third annual University of Saskatchewan Images of Research competition was held in the spring of 2017.
The competition is an avenue for U of S students, staff, faculty and alumni to showcase the ground breaking research, scholarly and artistic work taking place at the U of S. Rui Fang, a research assistant in biomedical engineering, received second place for Viewer’s Choice.
Rui Fang’s photograph captured hundreds of muscle-derived stem cells 3D cultured in alginate hydrogel. All the shining spots are the cells growing healthily in a body-like environment. Stem cells are a main source of cells that can grow into large amounts for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Producing enough functional cells is a strategy to repair organs, such as hearts where cardiomyocytes cannot regenerate, themselves. Heart failure after myocardial infarction is the leading cause of death and patients’ lives cannot be saved other than with a heart transplantation, though there are few donors. My research is to repair myocardial infarction by inducing stem cells into beating cardiomyocytes. By complementing sufficient cells, hearts can be repaired and finally, lives can be saved.
To view the other photographs within the Images of Research competition, visit: http://research.usask.ca/images-of-research.php