The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, located in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, is an international leader in the translation of scientific discovery to clinical therapies. According to Director, Anthony Atala, M.D., "The Institute has all the components in place to allow basic and clinical research to work in concert."
The innovation and perseverance of physicians and researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine resulted in the world’s first laboratory-engineered organ, bladder tissue that has been successfully implanted in children and adults. Today, this groundbreaking team is applying their expertise to engineer more than 20 different organs and tissues in the laboratory.
The Institute, the largest freestanding facility in the world dedicated to regenerative medicine, also focuses on cellular therapies using a non-controversial type of stem cell researchers discovered to develop treatments for diabetes, heart disease and other maladies. With its history of past success and a focused strategy to get therapies as quickly as possible to patients, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is the premier research center of its kind.
Once a new technology has been thoroughly tested and is ready for clinical studies, the Institute is equipped for efficient translation from the bench to the bedside. A cGMP facility, which manufactures replacement tissues and organs under guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ensures that a reproducible process is in place. And when the technology is ready to be licensed to a company that can commercialize it for widespread use, the Institute has developed a first-of-its-kind regenerative medicine "accelerator" to create companies and develop partnerships to hasten the delivery of the technology to patients.