Overview: Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine show great promise for improving human health by restoring damaged and diseased tissue. The field has grown and evolved significantly over the last 25 years and stem cells, specifically specialized engineered stem cells, have emerged as a major contributor to new advancements in regenerative medicine therapies.
The worldwide importance of stem cell engineering was the focus of a recent World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC) report titled Global Assessment of Stem Cell Engineering (WTEC, December 2012). The WTEC panel that conducted the assessment was led by Robert M. Nerem, a pioneering tissue engineering researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The primary purpose of the assessment was to analyze the global status and trends of stem cell engineering and to compare U.S. research and development programs with those abroad. The WTEC report lays out important steps that need to be taken by the U.S. scientific leadership to continue advancements in stem cell technologies. Examples include the need to expand and strengthen international research collaborations, as well as enhancing U.S.-based academic-industry partnerships to successfully translate research into commercial successes.
The focus of this workshop is to discuss emerging stem cell and regenerative medicine technologies. The main objective of this workshop is to bring together key global leaders in stem cell engineering and regenerative medicine from academia and industry to (1) discuss the critical issues and challenges facing the further growth and development of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and (2) identify future research directions in this field with emphasis on the role of stem cell engineering. The topics that will be discussed include programming stem cells and their environments, stem cell bioprocessing and manufacturing, computational stem cell biology and system analysis, and interface of stem cell technology with applications of the future.
Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of the proposed workshop is the stimulation of creative, original, and potentially transformative new ideas and concepts and the identification of future directions in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with emphasis on the role of stem cell engineering. This workshop is unique as it brings global stem cell engineering experts to discuss the challenges faced both nationally and abroad in the field.
Broader Impact: Workshop discussions will help to advance current understanding of the underlying scientific and technological issues and challenges currently impacting stem cells engineering. Information produced from the workshop will be disseminated broadly to the scientific community to enhance scientific and technological understanding. Efforts will be made to involve underrepresented populations, as well as new investigators and trainees.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The "New Directions in Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine" workshop gathered global regenerative medicine leaders to identify the future actions to be undertaken by both the regenerative medicine and tissue engineering research community, as well as U.S. funding agencies, to develop the field of stem cell engineering as it relates to advancing progress in the field of regenerative medicine. Such progress includes the successful development of cell-based therapies and widely available commercial products for treating illness and disease. The major outcomes of the workshop include the identification of six key scientific barriers specific to the successful engineering of stem cells. Examples of such barriers include the need for improved stem cell culture techniques, the ability to mass-produce stem cells, and the need for effective animal models necessary to develop stem cell therapies in humans. A second important outcome of the workshop is the development of six recommendations that will advance stem cell engineering and promote the successful use of stem cells in modern healthcare applications. Examples of recommendations include the need for standardized methods and safety controls for producing stem cells in the laboratory and in the large-scale manufacturing of stem cells; improved imaging technologies to study the fate of stem cells in animal models; and the need to learn significantly more about the body’s immune response to stem cells. The overarching general conclusions of the workshop are that the increased involvement of engineers and engineering approaches in the stem cell field will result in the following: A more quantitative understanding of basic stem cell biology. The development of enabling tools for both basic research and the translation of the basic science into applications, with examples being computational modeling and biomanufacturing. Acceleration in the development of new drugs and biologics, while at the same time reducing the costs of the development process to make new technologies affordable. The development of widely available cellular therapies that treat diseases and conditions of injury in humans for which currently no real treatment options exist. Additionally, the development of new stem-cell-based clinical applications and products will have a positive impact on the growth of the 21st century bioeconomy in the United States and around the world. Dedicated federal funds for stem cell engineering research and development projects will be a critical component to implementing the recommendations that have resulted from the workshop. The important future research recommendations that have resulted from the workshop will broadly impact healthcare by bridging academic research, both nationally and internationally, with industry through partnerships to develop new technological breakthroughs in stem cell research and development that will benefit society over the next decade.
