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REGENERATE - Regenerative medicine

Programme
Regenerative medicine is aimed at improving health by restoring tissue and organ function. Replacing, engineering, or regenerating cells following transplantation allows tissues to be restored. To achieve this, more insight is needed into the biology of stem cells that replenish tissues and into how they can be engineered to improve their function with ageing.

The programme is aimed at expediting the development of regenerative medicine therapies by bridging the gap between fundamental and translational research. The programme focuses on how stem cells with the ability to replenish aged or damaged tissues work and how these stem cells can be stimulated to produce new organ-specific cells in a safe way.

The main research topics include:

  • The biology of stem cells, including induced pluripotent stem cells and tools for genome engineering of stem cells;
  • The biology of stem cell-derived, differentiated tissues and their 2D and 3D culture systems, including organoids and organ-on-a-chip cultures;
  • The interaction of regenerated tissues with their macro- and micro-environment and with non-biological materials.
Relevance

Improving health span

Regenerative medicine holds great promise for the development of novel treatments to improve patients’ health span.

The programme is aimed at repairing or replacing damaged tissues and organs using biological engineering strategies. Regenerative medicine interventions are currently under development in all medical fields, ranging from neurological disorders to cardiovascular and orthopaedic disorders. Furthermore, regenerative medicine could play a role in counteracting the natural ageing processes in the body. The research activities include:

  • Bringing together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians, focused on regenerative medicine in the broadest sense;
  • Facilitating collaborations to encourage cross-disciplinary thinking and collaborative science in the field of regenerative medicine, with a focus on developing a bench-to-bedside approach; 
  • Focusing on translation of this knowledge to treatments in clinical practice, thereby helping to improve the health span of the elderly in the future.

Contact

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
W.J. Kolff Institute
REGENERATE - Regenerative medicine
P.O. Box 196
9700 AD Groningen
The Netherlands