Distinguished Professor Hutmacher’s background is a strong combination of academic and industrial.  His expertise is in biomaterials, biomechanics, medical devices and tissue engineering.  He is one of the few academics to take a holistic bone engineering concept to clinical application.  More than 400 patients have been treated with the FDA-approved bone engineering scaffolds developed by Prof Hutmacher’s Singapore-based interdisciplinary research group.

Over the last 4 years, Professor Hutmacher has developed an international track record in adult stem cell research related to regenerative medicine.  Regenerative medicine/tissue engineering is a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field involving the life, physical and engineering sciences and seeks to develop functional cell, tissue and organ substitutes to repair, replace or enhance biological function that has been lost due to congenital abnormalities, injury, disease or aging. It includes both the regeneration of tissues in vitro for subsequent implantation in vivo as well as regeneration directly in vivo. In addition to having a therapeutic application, tissue engineering can have a diagnostic application where the engineered tissue is used as a biosensor. Engineered tissues can also be used for the development of drugs including screening for novel drug candidates, identifying novel genes as drug targets, and testing for drug metabolism, uptake, and toxicity.