Wake Forest University

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) is a teaching hospital located in Winston—Salem, North Carolina. WFUBMC comprises the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the North Carolina Baptist Hospital. The North Carolina Baptist Hospital was established in 1923 as an 88—bed community hospital. Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM; formerly the Bowman Gray School of Medicine [BGSM]) was founded in 1902 on the old Wake Forest University campus in Wake Forest. In 1941, BGSM moved to Winston—Salem, North Carolina, to become affiliated with the North Carolina Baptist Hospital. In 1997, the hospital and medical school realigned to become the WFUBMC. The combined entity is now composed of three main entities: Wake Forest University School of Medicine; North Carolina Baptist Hospital, which physically includes the Brenner Children's Hospital and has off—site subsidiary hospitals; and Wake Forest University Physicians, which includes the attending staff at the hospital.

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has all the components in place to allow basic and clinical research to work in concert. The environment fosters multidisciplinary collaboration and, most important, facilitates the transfer of technologies emerging from this research to the patients who need them. To accelerate the development of new therapies, the programs at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine stimulate interaction between scientists in the fields of biomédical and chemical engineering, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, materials science, nanotechnology, genomics, proteomics, drug delivery, surgery, and medicine. Current research at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine focuses on a wide range of engineered tissues with the aim of having a lasting effect on conditions ranging from congenital abnormalities to acquired pathologies such as infection, tumors, trauma, and chronic diseases. As a result of their preliminary successes, tissue engineering and cellular therapy programs now span multiple organ systems. Safety and efficacy in the institute's programs in basic cell, tissue, and organ research are supported by excellent clinical translation capabilities, and several preclinical and U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical studies have been successfully conducted.

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is working on more than 20 different [Page 614]tissue types for the restoration or replacement of diseased tissues or organs. The Tissue Engineering and Clinical Translation team, under the direction of James J. Yoo, M.D., Ph.D., has already achieved success with several engineered tissues that have reached patients. Stem cells are also an attractive cell source, as they possess the ability to become various tissue types. The institute's Cellular and Molecular Therapy team, led by Shay Soker, Ph.D., has established stem cell isolation, expansion, and differentiation systems for guiding the cells into numerous cell types, including bone, fat, muscle, liver, pancreatic, nerve, and endothelial cells. The team has demonstrated that stem cell—derived cells are able to maintain their normal functional characteristics through in vitro and in vivo studies. The team is using bioinfor—matic tools to characterize genetic changes during stem cell differentiation. Despite the dramatic progression in understanding of the basic conditions needed to create these tissues in the laboratory, several basic challenges drive the pursuit of tissue and organ production on a large scale. Wake Forest strives to create more efficient ways to enhance cell growth and function in vitro and is working to develop ideal three—dimensional scaffolds that will allow engineered tissues to mimic tissue and organ function while ensuring long—term survival of the engineered tissues. Other long—term benefits from basic research are arising from nanotechnol—ogy and cell—based drug delivery systems. The most important missions of the center are to share these novel technologies with scientific and industrial communities worldwide to further accelerate clinical translation to patients in need.

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