Fact Finding Mission to Japan, India and China.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) recently awarded a grant for a Tissue Engineering f act f inding Mission to Japan, India and China to Dr Vivek Mudera, Lecturer at the Tissue Repair & Engineering Centre, UCL   and his co-investigators Prof. Robert Brown (Professor of Tissue Engineering, University College London) and Mrs. Sally Brown (Administrator of BRITE Net, a EPSRC funded virtual network based at UCL).

The main objective of this Mission is to explore and develop new collaborations with scientists, engineers and industry involved in Tissue Engineering in Japan, India and China.     This mission will also double as a fact finding mission on the ongoing research in this fast emerging field, funding opportunities in basic science as well as industrial links and possibilities for commercial exploitation of current technology. This mission will explore avenues of collaboration with researchers and industry who are involved in diverse fields of Tissue Engineering.

This mission involves visits to major centres identified in these three countries   and will involve a series of presentations by Dr. Mudera and Professor Brown on the technologies developed at TREC and the current state of Tissue Engineering in the UK. It is envisaged that joint funding grant proposals to fund collaborations and exchange/transfer of technology grant applications will be submitted to research councils and funding agencies in the UK and in Japan, India and China.  

We also to propose to extend BRITE Net   to these countries through internet links. This will help setup communication links through which researchers can communicate their research findings through message boards for help and advice.

International Conference on Strategies in Tissue Engineering June 17-19, 2004 held at the Congress Centre, Wurzburg. Germany.

This international conference was jointly organized by the Wurzburg Tissue Engineering Initiative and BioMedTec Franken e.V. under the auspice's of TESI and ETES. Both Prof. Bob Nerem (President of TESI) and Prof. Jons Hilborn (President of ETES) were present and gave keynote presentations.

The conference was held over three days and divided into 15 sessions some of which were held in parallel. It was attended by a large international contingent with keynote speakers from the USA, UK and all across Europe. These sessions covered the breadth of Tissue Engineering disciplines with two sessions devoted exclusively to Stem Cells. These had quite a few presentations asking the same fundamental question. How do we define a “mesenchymal stem cell”? strategies included identifying various surface markers using flow cytometry or immunostaining combined with ability to differentiate into multiple lineage's. A few presentations outlined strategies to isolate and culture these cells with data on amplifying rates and ability to maintain multi lineage potential in culture with the bone marrow being a common though not exclusive source for these cells.

An entire session was devoted to GMP in TE, which is an important aspect highlighted for a deliverable therapeutic TE product, there was also a session on Gene Therapy and Ethics, which highlighted the ethical issues in cell sourcing.

Not surprisingly the musculoskeletal system dominated most of the sessions but there were also dedicated sessions on Liver, Pancreas and Parathyroid as a group and Kidney, Genitourinary systems and Breast with presentations highlighting the complex strategies as well as the diverse applications of Tissue Engineering.

The session, which focussed on Biomaterials and Biomechanics highlighted the importance of understanding biomechanics once a TE construct is implanted. Prof. Jons Hilborn's keynote lecture was particularly insightful on the effect of movement and correlation with Young's modulus of implanted construct on the fibrotic response in vivo. This has important implications for successful TE outcomes. Another session focussed on bioreactors and analytical tools and clearly identified the urgent need for non-invasive monitoring of TE constructs in bioreactors.

Sessions on cardiovascular systems, bone engineering, cartilage, central and peripheral nervous systems and skin were particularly encouraging and highlighted the huge advances made in a few short years with a wealth of data on in vitro and in vivo work using various animal models, sophisticated methods of monitoring constructs once implanted (highlighted in a keynote lecture by Prof. R Cancedda) as well as some products already on the market as interims to TE therapies.

Dr Vivek Mudera

Lecturer, TREC