Regenerative medicine seeks to replace lost, damaged or diseased tissue with new, healthy tissue through procedures not requiring organ donation and transplantation. For example, bone marrow replacement, a procedure that eliminates the sources of diseased hematopoietic cells and substitutes a healthy system, is based on the activity of a small number of transplanted stem cells.
However, regenerative therapies have not been developed for most organ systems, including the brain, heart, kidney, pancreas, and joints.
While strategies in the past decade have focused on potential therapies involving treatment with cell populations, tapping into natural regeneration programs and boosting the endogenous capacity of tissue to regenerate or rejuvenate is a prerogative for the field today. This is where the discovery science of developmental and regeneration biology and the application of regenerative medicine must meet and work together closely.
Regeneration Next seeks to accomplish such a goal, by bringing faculty, trainees and staff together to advance education, discovery science, translational research, and development of therapies.
