The institute was originally established as an affiliated research institute of the Catholic Research Institute of Medical Science subsidized by the Catholic Medical Center for multidisciplinary research in June 2005. Its organizational status was elevated to that of an affiliated institute of the university in September 2005.
In current advanced medical science, the realization of cell/tissue therapy has become more promising owing to the convergence of cell/tissue biology with material engineering, or so-called cell and tissue engineering, since the development of cell therapy or cell-construct wouldnt be possible solely on the basis of medical science. In addition, cell and tissue engineering is critical to the development of a stem cell differentiation technique, one of the major fields supported by the university. Therefore, the establishment of the Cell and Tissue Engineering Institute is believed to be a highly promising development for the success of futuristic technologies which will be developed by the institute with the convergence of medical science, life science, and engineering, and is expected to secure the core capacity for the development of cell/tissue therapy which will take a big part of the treatment of incurable diseases or the extension of human life expectancy.