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Volume 6, Issue 7(Suppl) J Gastrointest Dig Syst 2016
ISSN: 2161-069X JGDS, an open access journal Gastro Congress 2016
October 24-25, 2016
Page 22
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
October 24-25, 2016 Valencia, Spain
9th Euro Global
Gastroenterology Conference
Khalil N Bitar, J Gastrointest Dig Syst 2016, 6:7(Suppl)
Khalil N Bitar
Wake Forest School of Medicine Winston Salem, USA
What the future holds for tissue engineering in the GI tract?
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine aim to restore, repair, or regenerate the function of the tissues. Gastrointestinal
tissue engineering is a challenging process given the specific phenotype and alignment of each cell type that colonizes
the tract. These properties are critical for proper functionality. Regeneration of the neuromuscular apparatus is of critical
importance. New materials are emerging. Regeneration can be divided into acellular approaches such as decellularized
matrices, synthetic and natural scaffolds as replacements to reconstruct the gut, or cell-based approaches such as tissue specific
cells (smooth muscle cells, neural progenitor cells and epithelial cells), gut derived organoid units, and stem cells (organ buds).
New stem cell strategies for in vitro modeling and in vivo therapies are emerging.
Biography
Khalil N Bitar is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine, Gastroenterology, Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Director of Gastroenterology Program
at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He has published more than 100 papers in high impact journals and has been funded by NIH for more than
30 years. He is a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association.