Discover the Future of Regenerative Medicine with the Faculty from Dartmouth College

Summary:

Medicine is recognizing the benefits of innovative technologies, and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of regenerative medicine. See what Dartmouth College faculty has to say on this emerging field.

Key Points:

• Dartmouth College offers an online precollege program for high school students that touches on the advances being made in regenerative medicine.
• Discover what the course has to offer.
• Hear from Katherine Hixon, Ph.D., assistant professor of engineering clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics, Dartmouth College, with additional comments from her colleagues, Ph.D. candidates, and industry experts.

Today, technology is permeating all facets of our society. When we consider the game-changing effects it has on medicine, we can’t help but appreciate the advances we’re seeing. 

In this article, we’ll look at some of those advances, with a focus on regenerative medicine. As noted in The National Library of Medicine, “Regenerative medicine is a rapidly evolving field that seeks to restore or replace damaged or diseased tissues and organs through advanced technologies such as stem cell-based therapies, gene therapy, and tissue engineering. With the potential to revolutionize medical treatment, regenerative medicine offers hope for patients suffering from a wide range of conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and neurological disorders. Developing effective regenerative therapies requires the ability to analyze large amounts of complex data, which is where innovations like AI come in.”

If all of this sounds complex, it is. However, if you are a high school student with a passion for medicine and technology, you know that embracing advances in fields such as regenerative medicine is a must. Lucky for you, the Dartmouth Precollege Online Program delivers a profound opportunity to stay current on this evolving field of study. 

What follows is an introduction to Regenerative Medicine: Healing With Science, as well as comments on the course by Katherine Hixon, Ph.D., assistant professor of engineering and clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics, Dartmouth College, with additional comments from her colleagues, Ph.D. candidates, and industry experts.

About Dartmouth’s Regenerative Medicine Course

Dartmouth’s regenerative medicine online course is designed for motivated high school students with a keen interest in science and medicine. You’ll study the building blocks of healing, how cells form tissues, and how they can be used to repair cellular damage. You’ll discover how stem cells and cellular therapies are revolutionizing healthcare, from tissue repair to ethical debates about their use in modern medicine. You’ll dive into the science of tissue engineering, learn about scaffold design, biomaterials, and bioactive molecules that enable regeneration and healing. Explore techniques like 3D bioprinting, decellularization, and bioreactors, which offer potential solutions to organ shortages. 

By the end of the course, you’ll: 

• Understand the importance of biotechnology, precision medicine, and space-related regenerative innovations. 
• Master techniques used in regenerative medicine to analyze challenges like vascularization and tissue integration. 
• Understand how regenerative medicine addresses critical challenges like organ shortages, tissue repair, and disease treatment through case studies and practical examples.
• Acquire foundational knowledge in medicine, engineering, and biology that supports careers in medicine.

“In this course on regenerative medicine, we focus on a lot of topics, including cell therapies, tissue engineering, and organ regeneration. We invite you to step into the lab with us and learn about all the different areas you could be involved in. We combine all therapies, such as bioprinting, organ generation, medicine, and engineering, to ideally reinvent how we treat patients.

If you are interested in engineering, medicine, patient care, and the impacts of technology, regenerative medicine is definitely the course for you.”

~Katherine Hixon, Ph.D., assistant professor of engineering, clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics, Dartmouth College

We asked Professor Hixon and other experts involved to give further perspective on this course.

Experts’ and Instructors' Comments on this Course 

Our experts say it best…

“Imagine standing next to me in our lab as we operate the fire printer. Fire printing is a special way of making scaffolds. For instance, you can take an MRI or some sort of 3D scan of a patient’s defect or organs, and we can take that file, put it into our computer, and the printer will start to use a high drill ink and print in the exact formation of the part we need. So, if someone has a break in their leg, we can scan the break, put it in our computer, and print out an exact duplicate of the healthy version.”

~Levi Olevsky, Ph.D., candidate, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College.

“Regenerative medicine is brand new; it’s a big deal, and it's affecting a lot of people’s lives.”

~Alexander J. Boys, Ph.D., associate professor, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College.

“It’s the next forefront in improving how we treat our patients.”

~Leah Gitagin, M.S., associate professor, section chief, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

“The whole goal is to repair, replace, and regenerate tissue, and get back to being you.”

~Isaac A. Rodriguez Ph.D., co-founder and chief science officer, Sweet Bio.

In addition to our experts’ clarifications on the nature of the regenerative medicine course, they also have thoughts on the unique approach these precollege online courses provide for you. 

“I would definitely take a course like this in high school if I had the opportunity. You have the potential to see what research at a Dartmouth lab looks like from the comfort of your home.”

~Amritha Anup, BE, Ph.D., candidate, Thayer School of Engineering.

“This is such a cool opportunity that not everyone has. Getting access to this course early on is very important.”

~Jewelra Dyrant, MD/MS candidate, Dartmouth College.

For high school students seeking college prep courses online, Dartmouth has a lot to offer. According to Professor Hixon, there are three key reasons to check out pre-college courses at Dartmouth College:

1. “You can explore not only regenerative medicine, but also finance, biology, and psychology.
2. “You can study any of these subjects, which are not topics you usually find in high school.
3. “Thanks to the flexible format, you can study anywhere you like; on your computer at home, or while you’re traveling. The format is based on dynamic videos and interactive tools supported by mentors.”

Finally, you can work with professors who have been in their respective fields for a long time, as well as with graduate students who are immersed in these exciting fields. Team up with Prelum, Powered by Kaplan, and experience how to prepare for college in high school. And remember, technology is moving so fast, it only makes sense to dive in while you’re in high school. And what better school to partner with than Dartmouth?

This was last reviewed by Ashley Simmons on 07/18/2025.