Stem Cells and Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and historic perspective
2. Stem cells definition and types of stem cells, stemness and differentiation
3. Modern methods of obtaining stem cells overview of reprogramming methods
4. Transdifferentiation direct way to obtain cell precursors for regenerative medicine
5. Generation of organs based on repopulation of cell-free extracellular matrix scaffolds
6. Introduction to transplantology
7. Biomaterials
8. Overview of technologies applied for biomaterial production
9. Quality control of biomaterials
10. Methods of biomaterial-aided cell delivery
11. Example of successful biomaterial-based artificial organ artificial cornea
12. Example of successful biomaterial-based artificial organ artificial hip
13. Example of successful biomaterial-based artificial organ artificial skin
14. Biomatreials, and artificial tissues risk assessment
15. Regenerative medicine in numbers
16. Regenerative medicine further development

Authors

Marek J. Los Biotechnology Center, Silesian University of Gliwice, Gliwice, Poland. Marek Los studied medicine at Jagiellonian Univ., Krakow, Poland. He obtained his doctoral degree from Univ. Heidelberg, in 1995, and habilitation (academic teaching license) in Molecular Medicine, from Univ. Muenster in 2002. He is currently the head of Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Silesian University of Medicine, in Katowice, Poland. He is also assoc. editor at The European Journal of Pharmacology, holds 2 Visiting Professorships at other Polish universities, and a 'Senior Scientific Adviser' position at Linkocare AB, Linköping, Sweden. Linkocare's core business is the production of artificial corneas. Dr. Los (co-)authors about 150 scientific papers, some of them highly-cited, edited several books and volumes. He has been serving as member of a number of editorial boards of scientific journals, as well as on various grant review committees in the Europe and in Canada. Dr. Los pursues various research projects within area of oncology, targeted cancer therapies and Regenerative Medicine. His most important scientific achievements were the description of involvement of caspase family of proteases in CD95 (APO-1/Fas) mediated apoptosis, (Los et al., 1995; Nature 375: 81-83), and the discovery of the role of kinase Akt both in the regulation of cell survival and cell death of cancer cells (Maddika et al., 2008, J. Cell Sci.; Maddika et al., 2009, Mol. Cell. Biol.). His research interest encompasses cancer immunology, cell death execution pathways, as well as cancer stem cell biology, epigenetic reprogramming (production of iPS-cells), as well as transdifferentiation technologies. Andrzej Hudecki Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, Gliwice, Poland. Research scientist at Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals in Gliwice. In 2015 he received his Ph.D. in technical sciences at Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice. He's a member of the Polish Biomaterials Association. His scientific activity focuses on development of innovative composite materials and transforming them into tissue scaffolds using 3D printing technology, obtaining micro- and nanofibres in the electrostatic field and use of tissue scaffolds obtained in that way in regenerative and reconstructive medicine. Emilia Wiechec Forskarassistent, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKE), Linköping University, Sweden. Emilia Wiechec has received MSc degree in the field of biotechnology of microorganisms from the University of Silesia (Poland) and PhD in the area of cancer biology and genetics from the University of Aarhus (Denmark). She is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Sweden. Her research area spans both cancer and genes that regulate (cancer) cell stemness. She investigates pro-survival and apoptotic pathways triggered in cancer (stem) cells (CSCs) by anticancer drugs. Her research interest encompasses cancer genetics, cancer stem cell biology and anti-cancer treatment. She aims at development of new anti-cancer drugs, preferentially targeting CSCs.