Stem Cell Research and Tissue Regeneration

The Center for Regenerative Medicine is dedicated to understanding how tissues are formed and may be repaired in settings of injury. Its primary goal is to develop novel therapies to regenerate damaged tissues and thereby overcome debilitating chronic disease. The success of this effort requires a cohesive team of scientists and clinicians with diverse areas of expertise, but with a shared mission and dedication to the larger goal of curing chronic diseases.

Central to the Center’s overall design and mission is the provision of technological services to tissue regeneration and stem cell research throughout the Harvard wide community. While these facilities support the Center’s research activities, they will also be made available to other stem cell researchers within the Harvard Stem Cell Institute’s realm, further enhancing collaboration, and also eventually providing an additional revenue source supporting the Center for Regenerative Medicine. In addition, the Center is committed to creating and sustaining collaborative relationships throughout MGH, the Harvard affiliated hospitals as well as with national and international researchers.

The Center’s unparalleled focus on stem cell and tissue regeneration research is evident within the Center and in the collaborations it forms. One aspect of this is the development of tools (such as the facilities) and biomedical capabilities of key Principal Investigator labs (such as tissue engineering and somatic cell nuclear transfer) that will support many potential future stem cell based therapies. Another aspect is the focus on its own collaborations and in its role with HSCI that offers significant opportunities for both success and impact. These include the blood and immune system (including leukemias and AIDS); cancer; neurological diseases, cardiac and diabetes.

The Center is using stem cell biology to inform novel strategies for tissue repair in three lines:

1. as replacement parts along the model of current stem cell transplant techniques, but extended in disease application and to novel tissue constructs;
2. as a tool to develop drug therapies to enhance endogenous tissue repair; and
3. as a model for understanding mechanisms of degenerative disease and cancer that may change drug development schemas.

The Center is pursuing each of these three parallel paths, either directly through its membership or through collaboration. The Center emphasizes fundamental biology, but prioritizes areas with practical potential for patient benefit and will provide core resources to assist a broad investigative community. In the longer term it also supports active development in the field of tissue engineering with the goal of integrating stem cell science into the creation of biocompatible and genetically compatible lab grown organs.