The interdisciplinary field of regenerative medicine holds the promise of repairing and replacing tissues and organs damaged by disease and of developing therapies for previously untreatable conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, and renal failure. Derived from the fields of tissue engineering, cell and developmental biology, biomaterials science, nanotechnology, physics, chemistry, physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, and surgery, regenerative medicine is one of the most influential topics of biological research today.