Ira Pastor, ideaXme exponential health ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Anthony Atala, clinician, professor, and chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Ira Pastor comments:
For the last few months we’ve been profiling many cutting edge bio-molecular technologies that are in the pipeline for moving us into a 21st century curative model whereby we can begin to have a major impact on many of the chronic degenerative diseases responsible for human suffering and death. Today we are going to continue on that path in a major way.
Every year, 65 million people leave this world to the grips of death. Whether those deaths are related to diseases of aging (110,000 per day) or acute traumas (65,000 per day), at the end of the day, whatever the initial cause, it all eventually trickles down to the death of our complex, critical, 3D organ systems that give us our daily structure and function and support us throughout our life.
Previously, we’ve discussed the substantial imbalance that exists between organ supply and demand in the U.S. alone, and the promise of the tools of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to bridge this gap, and the potential to save countless lives in the process.
Dr. Anthony Atala
Today’s guest, who is at the forefront of making this scenario a reality, is Dr. Anthony Atala.
Dr. Atala is a clinician, professor, and chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He directs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and specializes in a variety of disciplines including Urology, Microsurgery, Biomaterials, Stem cell therapies, and Tissue engineering.
As director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Atala oversees a team of more than 400 researchers who are dedicated to developing cell therapies and engineering replacement tissues and organs. Currently, they are working on therapies for more than 40 different areas of the body.
Dr. Atala also directs the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a federally-funded effort to apply regenerative medicine to projects including engineering blood vessels, developing treatments to heal wounds and engineering replacement tissues for devastating injuries.
Awards and Publications
Dr. Atala is a recipient of many awards, including the Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, and the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors as a Charter Fellow.
Routinely listed in the literature as one of the world’s most influential people in biotechnology, Dr. Atala has led or served on several national professional and government committees, including: The National Institutes of Health Working Group on Cells and Developmental Biology, the National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Consortium, and the National Cancer Institute’s Advisory Board.
He is the editor of 14 books, including Principles of Regenerative Medicine, Foundations of Regenerative Medicine, Methods of Tissue Engineering as well as Minimally Invasive Procedures in Urology. He has published more than 500 journal articles and has applied for or received over 250 national and international patents.
Dr. Atala also sits on the editorial boards of Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy, Therapeutic Advances in Urology; Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Journal of Rejuvenation Research, Nanotechnology in Engineering and Medicine, Gene Therapy and Regulation as well as Current Reviews in Urology.
On this show we will hear from Dr. Atala:
About his background, how he developed an interest in science, medicine, and his specialization in urology. How he ended up at the global epicenter of tissue engineering. An overview of his Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System (ITOP) for organ bioengineering. The topic of vascularization as it pertains to keeping bio-printed organs alive, as well as the topic of “organ patches” versus full organ development. Finally, we’ll learn about the areas he is most excited about looking into over the next 10-15 years.
Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.
Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor
If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview with Dr. Sergio Canavero, neurosurgeon and Founder of the HEAVEN project.
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