Vascularization for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Wolfgang Holnthoner is an endothelial cell biologist and heads the Endothelial Cell/Vascularization Group at LBI Trauma in Vienna. He gained expertise in angiogenesis as well as lymphangiogenesis research in Austria and in Finland. His research interests span basic aspects of vascular biology (especially lymphatic vessels) involving the new era of extracellular vesicles research but also translational topics with the focus on microvascularization of engineered tissues.  Andrea Banfi directs the Cell and Gene Therapy research group at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. He previously worked in Genova (Italy) and Stanford (CA, USA). His research focuses on: 1) understanding the basic principles governing the growth of blood vessels, particularly the molecular crosstalk between endothelium, mural cells and inflammatory monocytes, in order to identify druggable targets for therapeutic vascular growth; and 2) translating these concepts into novel regenerative medicine approaches, particularly to generate vascularized tissue-engineered grafts and to treat ischemic diseases. Charles James Kirkpatrick is emeritus Professor of Pathology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center in Mainz, Germany, where he directed the Institute of Pathology from 1993 to 2015. He holds honorary and visiting professorships at universities in Sweden, China, Singapore, and Cuba and is a former President of both the German Society for Biomaterials (2001-2005) and the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB, 2002-2007). His principal research interests are in the fields of biomaterials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with special focus on human co-culture systems to understand mechanisms of biomaterial interactions with human tissues. Heinz Redl has served as Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology (LBI Trauma), part of the AUVA Research Center, since 1998 and is the founder of Trauma Care Consult, a company intended to promote collaboration with industry. His goals are to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic options available to trauma patients, and to establish new national and international networks - as can be seen in the 2006 launch of the Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration and subsequent creation of the European Institute of Excellence for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (Expertissue), which he co-founded.