Chipped a bone in a car accident? No problem. Ripped cartilage apart in your knee from years of running? That can be fixed, too. Blood vessels constricted by disease? Let’s make some new ones to replace them.

These scenarios aren’t as far-fetched as they may seem. In fact, UAB researchers are researching those possibilities and many more in the BioMatrix Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (BERM) Center, and now you can get a hands-on look at their work.

The BERM Center will display some of its innovative tools from Nov. 26 through Jan. 2, 2011, in McWane Science Center. In two bioreactors UAB scientists will grow blood vessels and cartilage using cells and biomaterial during the McWane exhibit “If a Starfish Can Grow a New Arm, Why Can’t I?”

Tissue engineering — or regenerative medicine — is an emerging multidisciplinary field involving biology, medicine and engineering, and it could be the next revolution in medicine, says Timothy Wick, Ph.D., co-director of the BERM Center and chair of UAB’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.