Regenerative Engineering: From Convergence to Consilience

In 2012 and on the 25th anniversary of the field of Tissue Engineering, the senior author (C. T. L.) introduced the new field of Regenerative Engineering in a hallmark article in Science Translational Medicine. Now, and after almost a decade, we define consilience in regenerative engineering as the next defining phase as we move forward.

We describe consilience as the coming together of facts and knowledge from across disciplines to form coherent inductions that are then used to develop new comprehensive theories and science for tissue regeneration.

The convergence of scientific areas, namely materials science, stem cell science, biophysics, developmental biology, and clinical translation allows the ability to address grand challenges such as human limb regeneration. This article provides an overview of Dr. Laurencin and his team’s most prominent work in the past three decades in the fields of nanotechnology, nanofibers, and soft and hard tissue regeneration. We discuss the foundations of regenerative engineering and the significant strides that have been made in the clinical translation of regenerative therapies.

We believe that consilience and the combining and converging of insights from across disciplines will be central to the future of Regenerative Engineering.

The field of Regenerative Engineering was created in 2012 by Dr. Cato T. Laurencin as the convergence of knowledge and expertise from advanced materials sciences, stem cell science, physics, developmental biology, and clinical translation. Dr. Laurencin and his team have made exceptional contributions in soft and hard tissue regeneration within this transdisciplinary field. Here, we describe the seminal contributions in the fields of nanotechnology, nanofibers, and stem cell niches that have contributed toward regenerative consilience. We believe regenerative consilience will revolutionize the field moving forward and will be imperative for addressing future challenges including the grand challenge of limb regeneration.