Tissue Engineering Today, Not Tomorrow - a meeting report

On the 17^th of November 2006 Euroscicon hosted a conference entitled ‘Tissue Engineering Today, Not Tomorrow’ at the MI Centre in London. The conference covered some of the key issues in tissue engineering including the use of embryonic and mesenchymal stem cells, the development of new generations of biomaterials and scaffolds, and the use of methods which will allow the implantation of tissue engineered constructs without evoking an immune response.

The conference was chaired by Professor Anne Dickinson from the University of Newcastle and was opened by Dame Julia Polak from Imperial College, London. Dame Polak presented an overview of the major issues in regenerative medicine, from the choice of cells and scaffolds through to methods of scale-up, the choices for cell delivery and the requirements of pre-clinical and clinical phase applications.

Alongside the choice of cells, the correct scaffold is a key determinant in a successful tissue engineering system and the recent developments mean that new generations of multifunctional biomaterials are now available. Several talks throughout the day covered this theme, with Professor Nureddin Ashammakhi from Keele University giving an overview of the various generations of scaffolds, from the first bioinert, biodegradable scaffolds to more recent third generation biomaterials, which are tailor-made and incorporate bioactive molecules which can aid cell division, differentiation or matrix synthesis and can also help prevent infection at the implant site. Talks were also given by Mrs T Morton (Ludwig Boltzman Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumology, Vienna, Austria), Dr Hossein Hosseinkhani (National Institute for Materials Sciences, Japan), Professor Kevin Shakesheff’s (University of Nottingham) and Professor Julian Chaudhuri (University of Bath) on application specific scaffolds and hydrogels.

A number of presentations throughout the day also covered the issue of immune rejection of transplanted cells and tissues. The first was by Dr Paul Fairchild (University of Oxford), who talked about embryonic stem cells, while later talks by Dr S Wolbank (Red Cross Transfusion Centre for Upper Austria, Austria), Dr Xiao Nong-Wang (University of Newcastle) and Dr Marta Calatayud (Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Barcelona, Spain) concentrated on adult stem cells. The methods of modulating the immunogenicity of both cell types was discussed and clinical trial evidence was given for the efficacy of these methods.

Final, a range of analytical methods to study cells and tissues was covered. Novel methods for isolating stem cells was discussed by Mrs Susan Donath of Miltenyi Biotec, Germany; Professor Farzin Farzaneh from Kings College, London discussed functional gene analysis to identify stem cell regulatory factors; Dr Catherine Sarraf from Westminster University discussed analysis of the effects of load on cells; and Dr Andre Neves from the University of Cambridge described MRI-based methods of analysing engineered tissues.

This excellent conference revealed that the fields of stem cells, tissue engineering, gene therapy, nanotechnology and regenerative medicine are all converging for clinical application and demonstrated that tissue engineering has huge potential for the treatment of countless medical conditions.

A further report can be found at http://www.eurosciconpodcasts.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/11/2564583.html