Regenerative Tissue Engineering and Transplantation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled Regenerative Tissue Engineering and Transplantation, organized by Rocky S. Tuan, Farshid Guilak and Anthony Atala, which will be held in Breckenridge, Colorado from April 1 - 6, 2012. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a dynamic, translational research field that amalgamates life sciences, engineering, and clinical medicine for the purpose of restoring structure and function to diseased, damaged or injured tissues and organs. Current efforts focus on the application of stem and progenitor cells, bioactive factors and biomaterial scaffolds in transplantation procedures to affect regenerative therapies. Breakthroughs in bladder and tracheal reconstruction and highly promising approaches for solid organ regeneration as well as musculoskeletal and nerve repair have been achieved. Effective cell sourcing, optimal assembly and fabrication of tissue-derived and synthetic biomaterial scaffolds, and targeted regulation of therapeutic and immunomodulatory functions of stem cells represent some of the current challenges in this field. In this Keystone Symposia meeting on Regenerative Tissue Engineering and Transplantation, exciting technological and intellectual advances in the field will be synthesized by expert scientists, engineers, and clinicians to assess and expand the landscape in regenerative engineering and transplantation. Opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions will be significantly enhanced by the concurrent meeting on Mechanisms of Whole Organ Regeneration, which will share an opening and closing keynote address as well as two plenary sessions with this meeting. More specifically, the pairing of these 2 meetings represents a highly unusual opportunity for crosstalk between the more applications-driven field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and the very basic research being explored in the field of whole organ regeneration. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Structural and functional loss of tissues and organs through disease, injury, and trauma is a significant challenge in medicine. Development of advanced regenerative and transplantation technologies is of essential benefit to these affected individuals. The Keystone Symposia meeting on Regenerative Tissue Engineering and Transplantation will directly address challenges in this field. Opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions will be significantly enhanced by the concurrent meeting on Mechanisms of Whole Organ Regeneration, which will share an opening and closing keynote address as well as two plenary sessions with this meeting.