Regenerative Medicine Today welcomes Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, who is Professor in the Department of Surgery, deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering within the Institute, and Blair Jobe, MD, Associate Professor of surgery in the Heart, Lung and Esophageal Surgery Institute at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC.  Drs. Badylak and Jobe discuss the recent successful use of tissue engineering in a non-invasive surgery to treat esophageal cancer as well as the potential benefits this technology holds for the future.

For more information about Dr. Badylak, please click here.

For more information about Dr. Jobe, please click here.

To make an appointment with Dr. Jobe, please click here.

To view the CBS 60 Minutes segment that feature Drs. Badylak and Jobe, please click here.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Regenerative Medicine Today welcomes Thomas W. Gilbert, PhD. Dr. Gilbert is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  His research interest are focused on the remodeling of biologic scaffolds for tissue-engineering based treatments, particularly relating to role of mechanical loading in the remodeling process.

He has directed and participated in pre-clinical studies relevant to orthopaedics, cardiac, and gastrointestinal applications.  He discusses his current research programs targeting tracheal reconstruction (with a particular focus on epithelialization and mechanical integrity of the graft) and tissue engineering approaches to pediatric congenital heart defects.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Regenerative Medicine Today welcomes Dr. Bryan Tillman.  Dr. Tillman is an assistant professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medicine Center as well as a practicing clinician.  Dr. Tillman discusses the applications of tissue engineering to construct replacement vessels for patients with peripheral vascular disease.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Regenerative Medicine Today welcomes Jennifer Braemar Ogilvie, MD.  Dr. Ogilvie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Section of Endocrine Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a faculty member at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Ogilvie discusses her clinical focus on endocrine surgery and her current regenerative medicine research interests that focus on the development of tissue-engineered endocrine organs, in particular bioengineered parathyroid and adrenal glands. Also, her initial studies on the development of a tumor vaccine and her strong commitment to student mentoring are discussed.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Dr. David Vorp is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering. He is also the Director of the Vascular Surgery and Vascular Biomechanics Research Lab. His research focuses on the assessment of mechanical factors in the genesis and progression of vascular diseases such as arterial aneurysms, atherosclerosis, vascular graft failure, etc., and in the development of tissue-engineered blood vessels. Dr. Vorp also describes some of the new initiatives of his lab such as the use of tissue engineering to treat urethral dysfunction.

On the podcast, Dr. Vorp introduces his innovative approaches to treat vascular disease and shares the status of these emerging technologies. He also shares his insights on Bioengineering education at the University of Pittsburgh.

For more information on Dr. Vorp, please click here.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Dr. Kim S. Jones visits Regenerative Medicine Today and gives us an insight into her exciting research in regenerative medicine. Dr. Jones is an Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University.

Her research interests center on the interactions between tissue engineering and the host response. Tissue engineering is intended to repair, replace or regenerate diseased or damaged tissue.  Typically, tissue-engineered constructs are composed of a biomaterial scaffold and functional cells. Such constructs are intended to supplement the supply of organs for transplant. Examples include vascular grafts, skin, artificial kidneys, livers and hearts. Dr. Jones research uses prototype systems to focus on two fundamental issues.

• Host Response to Tissue-Engineered Constructs
• Effect of Host Response on Remodeling in Tissue Engineering

When a body receives an implant, it responds with scarring, inflammation, wound healing or regeneration. It is thus inevitable that tissue-engineered constructs will be remodeled once implanted. Her goal is to divert the remodeling response toward regeneration, but this may be confounded by the nature of the implant. Many of the mediators and cells involved in immune and inflammatory responses are also involved in wound healing and regeneration. As such, we expect that methods used to minimize damaging responses will interact with regeneration. Understanding this interaction is critical in order to direct intelligent design for the next generation of tissue engineering.  On the podcast, Dr. Jones describes her work and shares her vision for the future.

Details of Dr. Jones’ work are available here.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Dr. Anshu Mathur visits Regenerative Medicine Today and introduces us to her exciting research on regenerative medicine. Dr. Mathur is an Assistant Director for Research at the Laboratory of Reparative Biology and Bioengineering at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. Mathur’s research objective focuses on elucidating the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in tissue engineered constructs developed from biologically derived materials for the treatment of chronic dermal wounds, where mechanical coupling of cell-matrix interface leads to contraction of the wound and cell-cell coupling is required to vascularize and activate normal scarring.

Her current projects are addressing the following areas:

• To elucidate the therapeutic effects of chitosan-fibroin biopolymer blends on matrix-remodeling in order to transform the mechanical environment of the wound, redistribute cell focal adhesions, and influence mechanical properties of the cell and the matrix.
• To exploit silk fibroin biopolymer micro/nano structure to tissue-engineer a scaffold that supports angiogenesis in order to provide blood supply to a healing wound.
• To assess the synergistic effects of emodin loaded chitosan-fibroin nanospheres on chronic dermal wounds and scars by examining the RTK signaling to matrix adhesion sites in fibroblasts using TIRFM, thus providing a novel way to study therapeutic effects of drugs.

Additionally, Dr. Mathur describes a new academic program in bioengineering that is under development at the M.D. Anderson/University of Texas at Austin.

Details of Dr. Mathur’s work are available here.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Dr. Milica Radisic visits Regenerative Medicine Today and discusses her studies related to functional tissue engineering. Dr. Radisic is an Assistant Professor, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto.

In the podcast, Dr. Radisic discusses the research in the Laboratory for Functional Tissue Engineering at the University of Toronto; focus areas include:

• Biomimetic approach to cardiac tissue engineering
• Development of functional, clinically sized (1-5 mm thick), compact cardiac constructs with physiologically relevant cell densities (108 cells/cm3)
• Advanced bioreactors for functional tissue engineering of myocardium
• Biophysical modulation of engineered myocardium
• Separation of heterogeneous cell populations (MEMS)

For more information on Dr. Radisic, please click here.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter

Dr. Michael Sacks visits Regenerative Medicine Today and discusses his work on the characterization of cardiac tissue and the various alternatives-now and in the future-for the repair of heart valves.

Dr. Sacks is the director of the Engineered Tissue Mechanics and Mechanobiology Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh where the research focuses on the characterization and modeling of the structure-function-biomechanics of native and engineered soft tissues, and linking these studies to the underlying cellular mechanobiology.  One of the areas of interest is on the mechanical behavior and function of mitral heart valves, including the development of the first constitutive (stress-strain) models for these tissues using a structural approach.

In the podcast, Dr. Sacks discusses:

• The roles/demands of different heart valves
• The advantages of a pediatric tissue engineered heart valve
• Mechanical and bio-prosthetic heart valves; capabilities and limitations
• Clinical perspective prosthetic valves
• Repair of valves vs. replacement
• Tissue characterization

Dr. Sacks shares his vision on the state of the art and his perspective on the future opportunities for heart valve repair for children and for adults.

Host John Murphy.

For more information about the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, visit:
McGowan Institute Research Site
McGowan Institute Patient Site
McGowan Institute on Facebook
McGowan Institute on Twitter