Regenerative Medicine

Through regeneration, a living system can restore some of its lost cells, tissues or organs. The fascinating field of regenerative medicine (RM) is harnessing the regeneration principles for treatment of human diseases. How to induce and/or control the regeneration process in the adult system is one of the fundamental challenges addressed in this field.

After introducing the main concepts and components, the RM course will present the achievements of regenerative medicine for selected tissues/organs based on a systematic approach including: the pathology involved, the regenerative therapies at molecular, cellular, tissue and/or organ level, and the state-of-the-art results. For each pathology, the following aspects will be discussed: (i) specific requirements for regenerative therapies (e.g., cells type and source, soluble factors, biomaterials/scaffolds), (ii) enabling technologies for cells manipulation, and biofabrication of scaffolds/tissue/organ (e.g., organs-on-chip, micro/nanofabrication, bioprinting), (iii) the influence of cells, soluble factors, biomaterials/scaffold properties and host conditions on the regeneration process, (iv) the relevant cellular and molecular interactions, (v) biocompatibility assessment of regenerative systems and (vi) future challenges for such treatments.