Nearly a thousand of the planet’s brightest minds dedicated to making spare and replacement human body parts gathered in Pittsburgh last month for the Regenerate World Congress on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the Westin Convention Center downtown.
Some 850 biotech engineers, scientists, students, physicians, and entrepreneurs attended the convention, nearly a third of them representing 40 nations and five continents. More than 500 research papers, lectures, and poster presentations were delivered over the course of four days. Participants discussed mind-boggling and highly-sophisticated advancements, both large and small, in their scientific universe of helping the human body repair itself. A veritable melting pot of scientists cruised the corridors, many conversing animatedly in their native tongues.
In addition, the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials followed the Regenerate Congress, bringing another 1,000 participants to Pittsburgh. The Congress and the Society overlapped one day so that concurrent sessions of mutual interest could be held.
“The combined meetings drew more than 2,000 people for one of the most dynamic and far-reaching gatherings… to advance tissue engineering/regenerative medicine science… that will benefit patients worldwide,” says William Wagner, associate director of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Perhaps there was no city better suited to host it.
Pittsburgh is a hot spot for this research, notes Patrick Cantini, deputy director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, or PTEI. The umbrella organization is made up of physicians, scientists, and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, local hospitals, and private biotech companies. They were organized a decade ago to support research and make the region a recognized center for education and commercial development of tissue-related medical therapies.
According to the latest 2004 numbers compiled by the Pittsburgh Technology Council, 3,229 life sciences employers, including hospitals and doctors offices in the 13-county southwestern Pennsylvania region, provide jobs for 115,000 workers and a payroll of $5.5 billion. In the narrower field of bioresearch, there are 260 employers, 8,500 workers, and a $555 million annual payroll. Those numbers reflect an increase of 20 per cent over the three years from 2002 to 2004.
The PTEI’s Cantini says Pittsburgh is among the top five tissue research centers in the country, with $80 million in federal research grants in FY 2005.“Also the dollars being spent here by the medical supply industry reflects the success of the research and development being undertaken,” he adds.
Groundbreaking research
It’s no wonder. The list of achievements by researchers here borders on the astonishing:
- respiratory assist catheters and lungs worn outside the body that exchange toxic and cleansed blood gases;
- ventrical assist devices that take over heart function until a transplant is found or a diseased or damaged heart recovers;
- cells from a human calf muscle injected into a bladder sphincter reduce urinary incontinence.
And on the horizon:
- using pig bladder tissue to reconstruct the human esophagus and trachea;
- creating artificial lymph nodes;
- growing blood vessels in artificially engineered tissues;
- regrowing small body parts like fingers and ears lost to combat injuries.
PTEI said it helps advance science and commerce by sponsoring forums like the World Congress, where researchers and industry leaders exchange their latest findings while rubbing shoulders with officials from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies that fund research, create regulatory guidelines, or otherwise affect policy.
A model for the world
In Pittsburgh, much of the actual scientific work is conducted at the McGowan Institute, a part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, by bioengineers like Mariah Hout. A 33-year-old post-doctoral fellow, her research is aimed at regenerating liver function by two approaches: one is called in vitro -- to provide artificial assistance to “rest” the native organ so it heals itself and a transplant may be avoided; the other is called in vivo -- using living cells that may regenerate to repair the defects of disease or injury.
With a complicated device called a bioreactor, she uses use liver cells from pigs or humans to cleanse or filter toxins from the blood plasma of a patient in acute liver failure, caused by a Tylenol overdose or binge drinking for example.
Hout is a native of the region and earned a PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where she’s gotten all her higher education.
At the Westin Convention Center, Tony Nazal of Garner, North Carolina, manned one of 32 exhibits at the World Congress. His company, DaVinci Biomedical Research Products, provides technological equipment for pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers doing animal research.
Nazal was last in Pittsburgh in 1992 when he was in sales for an electrical firm that did business with Pittsburgh Steel. “That plant was huge; it was a city in itself. Now I’m here as a medical industry executive. It’s really neat to see the changes after 14 years,” he said. “The city has made an impressive transition. I noticed Bayer and Glaxo facilities on the way in from the airport.” Nazal said he’s identified 10 firms to pursue as business prospects in the region.
Are Kristiansen of Oslo, Norway, held forth at the NovaMatrix booth in his second visit to Pittsburgh for a tissue reengineering meeting. His company makes ultra-pure polymers in which molecules may be inserted. He encouraged passersby to pick up a one-inch cube of the jiggling, jello-like substance. It’s fairly firm; another cube is squishier. He explained they were each 98 per cent water.
“Polymer is an inactive, passive agent that protects cells from being rejected by the body. The polymer gel is porous so if a cell inside it produces insulin, the gel allows it to escape into the body to do its work. But immune system cells are large and cannot penetrate the gel and damage the cells. The good molecules get out; the bad molecules can’t get in,” Kristiansen said.
“The World Congress surpassed all expectations,” Cantini said. “By every measure it was a phenomenal success and, most importantly, it will spur new research that may well lead to therapies and even cures for diseases. Some of this will be five, ten or more years down the road, but seeds were planted at this event that represent possibilities we can’t yet envision.”
Gregg Ramshaw is a former producer of NewsHour on PBS. His last story for Pop City was on Vivisimo.
Photos:
Bioreactor at McGowan Institute Laboratories
McGowan Institute and Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative building
McGowan Institute and PTEI sign
Entry hall
Bioreactors at McGowan Laboratories
all photos copyright Jonathan Greene