Magnetic sensors for regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine (RM) therapies have proven difficult to implement in clinical settings. The lack of available methods for tracking and adjusting the activity of bioengineered constructs or cell populations after implantation is a consistent bottleneck. To predict, monitor, and assess the effect of RM therapies, complex, real-time characterization of the host environment in terms of biomechanical, biophysical, and biochemical cues is required. This chapter describes the advances in magnetic materials that are currently being tested as RM monitoring platforms. Implantable and magnetoelastic sensors, as well as the design of micro- and nanoscale wireless devices, will be presented, as will tissue engineering applications for bone, orthopedic implants, blood vessels, pancreatic islets, and skin. We will discuss the use of magnetic nanomaterials as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic particle imaging, as well as imagistic surveys of cell populations in various cell and gene therapy applications.