CELLULARTHERAPIES.BIZ - Key Persons
Dr. Adam Feinberg is a Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He is also the principal investigator of the Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group. His group develops materials-based, engineering strategies to control the self-organization and assembly of various cell types into tissues. The goal is to understand the emergence of higher-order function in biological systems, especially in ophthalmic, neuromuscular, and cardiovascular systems. Current research projects include:
biomechanics and mechanobiology of fibronectin, laminin, and collagen nanofibers
development of new methods for fabricating ECM scaffolds
engineered basement membranes for regeneration of the corneal endothelium, and
cardiac tissue engineering using 3-dimensional nano/micro structured ECM scaffolds
3D bioprinting and advanced biofabrication approaches
Dr. Feinberg earned his Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering, with an option in bioengineering, from Cornell University, followed by his MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida. He completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, before he moved to Pittsburgh.
Most recently, Dr. Feinberg was the recipient of these prestigious awards:
National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award, 2012
George Tallman Ladd Faculty Research Award, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, 2013
National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2015
Arthur Hamerschlag Career Development Professorship, 2017
Dr. Feinberg currently holds >20 patents and patent applications and is a member of the Materials Research Society, American Chemical Society, Society for Biomaterials, Biophysical Society, Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Heart Association. He is also co-founder of FluidForm, Inc., a startup company focused soft materials and 3D bioprinting.
Job Titles:
- Professor With Tenure of Dermatology
Dr. Adriana Larregina is a Professor with tenure of Dermatology and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and she is also a faculty member of the Graduate Program in Immunology and Microbiology (IMM).
Job Titles:
- Vice Chair for Translational Research at the Allegheny Singer Research Institute
Dr. Albert Donnenberg is the Vice Chair for Translational Research at the Allegheny Singer Research Institute in the Allegheny Healthcare Network. He is also a visiting Professor of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine. Prior to this, he was a Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and Professor of Infectious Disease and Microbiology in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to research activities, Dr. Donnenberg is Director of both the UPMC and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Hematopoietic Stem Cell Laboratories. He is also a member of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and a member of the Graduate Faculty of the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Training Program. In addition, he is the Director of Cellular Therapy of the UPMC Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center.
Dr. Donnenberg received his BA from the University of Colorado - Boulder and his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he studied infectious disease epidemiology. Dr. Donnenberg spent many years at Johns Hopkins where he became an Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases before he came to the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Donnenberg's research focuses include:
Use of adipose derived stromal cells in wound healing and regenerative therapy
Cancer stem cells and the epithelial to mesenchymal transition
Identification of therapeutic targets on cancer stem cells
The immune environment of metastatic epithelial cancers
Technological advances in flow cytometry
Technological advances in cellular therapy
He is on the editorial board of Clinical and Applied Immunology Reviews, and he is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals, including these and more: Bone Marrow Transplantation, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Human Immunology, Natural Immunity, and the Journal of Immunology.
Dr. Donnenberg is a member of many professional organizations, including but not limited to, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the International Society for Analytical Cytology, The Transplantation Society, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Throughout his career, Dr. Donnenberg has received numerous awards, including serving as the Keynote Speaker of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Eurasian Hematology Society, Antalya Turkey (2011), the co-corresponding author (with Vera Donnenberg, PhD) for the Best Paper in Clinical Cytometry, ESCCA EuroConference, Dublin, Ireland (2011), the co-corresponding author (with Vera Donnenberg, PhD) for Editor-in-Chief Selection, Top Articles, Cytometry B (2012), and co-author, Best Research Paper, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2018.
Dr. Duncan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering of the Swanson School of Engineering. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Genome Stability Program. He is also a member of the Cellular & Molecular Pathology and Integrated Systems Biology graduate training programs.
Dr. Duncan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BS in Biology in 1996. He attended graduate school at Duke University, earning a PhD in 2005. Dr. Duncan's graduate work focused on hematopoietic stem cell biology. From 2005 to 2011, Dr. Duncan was a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon Health and Science University, where he investigated liver regeneration. Dr. Duncan was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 by the Department of Pathology and McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Duncan's comprehensive, NIH-funded program seeks to understand how hepatocyte chromosome variations influence liver function and disease, particularly the role of diploid and polyploid cells. Specific projects involve multiple areas. First, the lab seeks to identify the molecular and cellular players that regulate aneuploidy/polyploidy. The cell cycle in most normal mammalian cells is tightly regulated, prohibiting the expansion of polyploid and/or aneuploid cells. Experiments examine the extent of hepatocyte-specific cell cycle regulation. Additionally, multiple types of cells coordinate the overall degree of polyploidy/aneuploidy in the liver. Studies are underway to determine how diverse cell types (including stem and progenitor cells) contribute to genetic diversity. Second, the lab investigates the function of aneuploid hepatocytes. Despite the prevalence of hepatic aneuploidy, spontaneous liver cancer is rare, suggesting that aneuploidy is not necessarily a predisposition for liver cancer. Recent data indicate that hepatic aneuploidy is beneficial, promoting adaptation to liver injury. Development of new mouse models to explore "beneficial" and "pathological" adaptation mediated by aneuploid hepatocytes is in progress. Finally, how polyploid and aneuploid hepatocytes affect human liver disease is unknown. Studies seek to understand how these cells contribute to pathogenesis and regeneration in liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma and alcohol liver disease.
Dr. Duncan is on the Editorial Board of Hepatology, American Journal of Pathology, and Organogenesis and is an ad hoc reviewer for multiple journals, including Nature, Developmental Cell, and Journal of Hepatology.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory / Warrior Human Performance Research Center
Dr. Bradley Nindl is the Director of the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory/Warrior Human Performance Research Center and Professor in the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He also has dual appointments as the Senior Military and Scientific Advisor for the University of Pittsburgh Center for Military Medicine Research and at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Prior to coming to the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Nindl worked for over 20 years as an Army Medical Department government scientist working for the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine within the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the Army Institute of Public Health within the US Army Public Health Command.
Dr. Nindl received a BS in biology from Clarkson University in 1989, a MS in physiology of exercise from Springfield College in 1993, a PhD in physiology from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College in 2012.
His research interests span human performance optimization/injury prevention and biomarker domains with a focus on adaptations of the neuromuscular and endocrine systems (growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis) to both exercise and military operational stress. He is internationally recognized for his work in these areas and was Co-Chair of the 3rd International Congress on Soldiers' Physical Performance in 2014 and has performed research sabbaticals at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland (2009) and the University of Wollongong in Australia (2014) with the Finnish and Australian Defense forces, respectively.
His previous awards include the American College of Sports Medicine Young Investigator Award in 2002 and the US Army's Surgeon General "9A" Proficiency Designator (the Army Medical Department's highest award for professional excellence, bestowed on less than 2% of AMEDD military officers) in 2013. He is an associate editor for Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and a Fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine. He has over 146 peer-reviewed publications indexed on PubMed that have been cited over 3900 times with an h-index of 35.
Dr. Nindl is also an Army Reservist (COL) and Commander of the Southeast Medical Area Readiness Group in Nashville, TN, having been deployed in 2004-2005 in Mosul, Iraq, where he was awarded a Bronze Star and the Combat Action Badge. He and his wife Jeanne live in Gibsonia, PA, have 5 children: Ashley, Lyndsey, Zachary, Joshua, and Cooper.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Industry Partnerships / Pitt McGowan Institute / University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Bryan Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering with secondary appointments in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a core faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine where he serves as the Director of Educational Outreach. Dr. Brown is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Sciences at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and Chief Technology Officer of Renerva, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based start-up company.
Dr. Brown graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 and a PhD in Bioengineering in 2010. He then completed postdoctoral training in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Sciences at Cornell University prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh as a faculty member in 2011. Dr. Brown has also served as a visiting researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing China (2005-2006), a NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Fellow at Tokyo Women's Medical University Institute for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (2008), and most recently as a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health Scholar (NIH K12) at Magee Women's Research Institute.
Dr. Brown is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society (Member, Ethics Committee), the Society for Biomaterials, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (Member, Membership Committee), and the American Urogynecologic Society. He has received a number of awards including the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award, the TERMIS Educator Award, and the Carnegie Science Award. Dr. Brown has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and 5 book chapters. He has served as a reviewer on study sections for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and as a member of the selection committee for the Carnegie Science Awards. Dr. Brown is on the editorial board of Cells, Tissues, Organs, Current Pathobiology Reports, and the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine. He currently teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses including "Extracellular Matrix in Tissue Biology and Bioengineering," "Societal, Political, and Ethical Issues in Bioengineering and Biotechnology," and "Bioengineering Thermodynamics."
The Brown Laboratory seeks to couple a mechanistic understanding of the host inflammatory response in injury and disease with the development of context-dependent biomaterials for regenerative medicine strategies. The focus of the Brown Laboratory is upon clinical applications where few effective solutions currently exist, with increasing emphasis upon unmet clinical needs in women's health. Since 2011, the Brown Laboratory has received research funding for these efforts from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of General Medical Science, Office of Research on Women's Health, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, and multiple industry partners.
Job Titles:
- Co - Editor of the Book Skull Base Surgery
- Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Dr. Carl Snyderman is Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in Bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering. He is Otolaryngology Director of the Center for Cranial Base Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and is recognized internationally as a pioneer and leader in the development of the endoscopic endonasal approach, a minimally invasive surgical approach to the cranial base. Dr. Snyderman also has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is Vice Chair for Quality and Safety of the Department of Otolaryngology.
He received his Medical Degree from the University of Chicago, and completed his residency in otolaryngology and fellowship training in skull base surgery at the UPMC. He is past recipient of a Clinical Oncology Career Development Award from the American Cancer Society and a FIRST Award from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Snyderman is Past President of the North American Skull Base Society, he has received Presidential Citations from the American Head and Neck Society and The Triological Society, and is a two-time recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. He is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and in addition to the North American Skull Base Society and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, is a member of the American Head and Neck Society, the American Rhinologic Society, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators.
Dr. Snyderman is co-editor of the book Skull Base Surgery, part of the Master Techniques in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery series published by Wolters Kluwer, and co-editor of Operative Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 3 rd Edition. He has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and presents frequently at local, national, and international scientific meetings and courses. Dr. Snyderman is regularly recognized in Castle Connelly's Best Doctors in America and Pittsburgh Magazine's "Top Doctors."
Dr. Snyderman has additional training in entrepreneurship through the Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program and is past recipient of multiple Coulter grants from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Innovation and Pitt Innovation Challenge (PinCh). He regularly participates as a clinical mentor in the Medical Product Ideation Course at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and has multiple medical devices under development. He is cofounder and Chief Technology Officer of Respair, Inc, a medical device company specializing in solutions for airway problems.
Current research interests include surgical simulation, minimally invasive surgical instrumentation, and medical devices that enhance surgical safety. Dr. Snyderman is on the Executive Board of Pittsburgh CREATES (Collaborative Research, Education and Technology Enhancement in Surgery), a collaborative partnership of UPMC surgeons, engineers, and surgical device companies devoted to the advancement of minimally invasive surgery.
Dr. Cecelia Yates is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Promotion & Development, School of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, the Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, and the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Additionally, she is co-director of the University of Pittsburgh's Clinical and Translational Science Institute's TL1 Predoctoral Fellowship sponsored by NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program. Dr. Yates attended Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama, where she earned her BS in Biology/Chemistry, and her PhD in Integrative Biomedical Science and Pathology in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh. Upon completing her education, she participated in a Fellowship in Pathology at Pitt's School of Medicine.
Dr. Yates has over 15 years of experience in fibroblast, chemokine, and extracellular matrix biology and the pathogenesis of organ fibrosis. She has a continuous track record of innovative research and therapeutic development in the field of tissue repair. Her research focuses are on understanding immune cell and stromal cell mediated interactions that contribute to the pathogenesis of fibrotic diseases such as systemic sclerosis (Scleroderma) and IPF. Her research group combines both translational and clinical models to develop therapeutics including biometric peptides, cellular transplantation, and bioreactive scaffolds to promote tissue regeneration. Dr. Yates' research has been supported externally by the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and internally by the Chancellor's Innovation Award, the Center for Medical Innovation, and the University of Pittsburgh Genomic Hub. Dr. Yates' entrepreneurial activities include more than eight issued US patents, several international patents, and pending applications associated with her work. She is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Fibrokine Inc., a Pittsburgh-based start-up developing a broad spectrum of anti-fibrotic chemokine peptides to treat organ fibrosis. She is also the co-founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of a Pittsburgh-based start-up, Ocugenix, focused on ocular therapeutic development. In addition, she is involved with several ongoing therapeutic commercialization ventures.
Dr. Yates serves on a number of editorial boards including The American Journal of Pathology and Current Pathobiology Reports. She serves on the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health scientific review study sections. She is a member of American Society for Investigative Pathology, American Association of Immunologists, and the Wound Healing Society. She developed and directs the course "Foundations of Personalized Health: Translation from Basic Research to Clinical Practice" and teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses including "Pathophysiology Across the Life Span" and "Anatomy and Physiology." Dr. Yates mentors nursing, pathology, bioengineering, clinical and translational graduate and medical trainees at the University of Pittsburgh and nationally.
Dr. Yates' research interests are: pathogenesis of skin (Scleroderma), lung (IPF), cardiac (MI), and liver fibrosis; chronic and fibrotic wound healing; skin immunopathology and disease; chemokine and matrix signaling; gene expression profiling; prediction modeling; cellular transplantation; peptide and small molecule therapeutic development; and patient outcomes.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Pitt McGowan Institute / Professor of Surgery
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Clinical Director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute
Dr. Abhinav Humar is the Clinical Director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and the Chief, Division of Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is also a Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Staff Physician at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Healthcare System. Prior to this he was a Professor and the Director for the Liver Transplant Program at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Humar received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa, from which he graduated magna cum laude and was the silver medalist of his class. After initial fellowships at the University of Ottawa and the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Humar earned a research and clinical fellowship in transplant surgery at the University of Minnesota in 1996.
Dr. Humar's clinical interests include: 1.) Adult abdominal transplants (kidney, liver, pancreas, and bowel); 2.) Pediatric transplants; 3.) Living-related liver transplants; 4.) Split liver transplants; and 5.) Hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery.
His research interests are: 1.) Partial liver transplants and studies of hepatic regeneration; 2.) Clinical outcome studies in kidney, liver, and pancreas transplants; 3.) Clinical outcomes both short and long term in donors and recipients of living donor liver transplants; and 4.) Clinical studies and trials to promote tolerance after transplant.
Dr. Humar was selected as a Top Doctor in Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine in 2005-2008 and in Pittsburgh Magazine in 2011-2019. He is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Liver Transplantation Society, the Society of University Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons. He is the Deputy Editor of Clinical Transplantation and a Council member for the International LDLT Study Group.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Adam Kwiatkowski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Cell Biology in the School of Medicine. Dr. Kwiatkowski received his undergraduate training in Biology at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he graduated with Honors. He then completed his graduate and PhD education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Kwiatkowski participated in post-doctoral training as a Fellow at Stanford University, Stanford, California. Upon completion of his work in 2012 at Stanford, Dr. Kwiatkowski came to Pitt.
The long-term objective of Dr. Kwiatkowski's work is to gain a deep mechanistic understanding of cardiomyocyte adhesion and cytoskeletal organization at the intercalated disc. He and his team's approach is to define mechanisms of cell-cell adhesion, and downstream regulation of actin and intermediate filament organization by the a-catenin family of cytoskeleton regulators. This is an important biomedical problem because mutations in cell adhesion and cytoskeletal proteins at the intercalated disc formation are linked to cardiomyopathies, including arrythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).
Dr. Kwiatkowski is a member of these professional and scientific societies: American Society for Cell Biology, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Heart Association. He is an ad-hoc reviewer for these publications: eLife, Journal of Cell Biology, PLOS ONE, Journal of Cell Science, and Molecular Biology of the Cell.
Job Titles:
- Life Member of the Institute of Electrical
After retiring from a 30+ year industry career in medical product development, Dr. Alan Hirschman started an encore career as Professor of Bioengineering with the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hirschman established the Professional MS degree program in Bioengineering (Medical Product Development) and Professional Certificate in Medical Product Innovation. He designed and still teaches several core courses in that program. Dr. Hirschman also serves as Executive Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Innovation, a multidisciplinary innovation program involving faculty and students in the School of Engineering, Schools of Health Sciences, Katz School of Business and the Innovation Institute. His goal as an educator is to utilize his industrial experience while at the University of Pittsburgh to catalyze, promote, and champion the translation of technology into clinical applications and to educate the next generation of medical product innovators.
As Director of Technology in the Corporate Development & Innovations group at Bayer Healthcare (formerly MEDRAD, Inc), Dr. Hirschman led and participated in successful efforts to develop, commercialize, and acquire medical diagnostic and therapeutic interventional products used primarily by radiologists, cardiologists, and vascular surgeons worldwide.
In his career at Bayer, Dr. Hirschman had critical roles of increasing responsibility as a senior biomedical engineer, Engineering Director, MEDRAD Fellow, and most recently as a Business Development executive within Corporate Development. In the latter role, he had responsibility for identification of and assessment of companies subsequently acquired by the Bayer organization. This included due-diligence assessment of technology, intellectual property, business model and strategy, operations, and general fit and attractiveness with Bayer/MEDRAD's business interests.
Dr. Hirschman contributed to MEDRAD's patent strategy and to the company's patent portfolio as an inventor of core technologies, with over 70 issued and pending US patents in which he is a sole inventor or a co-inventor. Dr. Hirschman has expertise in the processes and standards for identifying user requirements, FDA regulations, human factors, intellectual property, reimbursement, and product liability issues for medical devices. In recognition of major contributions to MEDRAD's growth and market leadership, he was designated as the first MEDRAD Fellow in 1999.
Dr. Hirschman's product development experience included applications of physics and engineering to medical instrumentation, biophysical sensors, radiation sensors, MRI and RF engineering, digital image storage and display systems, ultrasound imaging systems, nuclear medicine delivery, cell therapy, embedded microprocessor control systems, motion control systems, and plastics used in medical disposable products.
Dr. Hirschman is a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a Fellow of the AIMBE (American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering).
Job Titles:
- President of the Wound Healing Society
- Thomas J. Gill III Professor of Pathology
Dr. Alan Wells is the Thomas J. Gill III Professor of Pathology and the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, Dr. Wells is a Professor of Bioengineering and Computational & Systems Biology (secondary appointments) and a Staff Physician at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Wells holds an AB in Biochemistry from Brown University (1979) and received his DMS in Tumor Biology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1982. Returning to Providence, Rhode Island, he received his MD from Brown University in 1988. Following his studies, Dr. Wells completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Tumor Biology at the University of California in San Francisco, California, and a Residency in Laboratory Medicine at the University of California in San Diego, California.
Dr. Wells is a member of numerous societies and professional organizations, and has had the honor of serving in governance in many of these. He currently is the past president of the Wound Healing Society and a past president of the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) and the American Association of University Pathologists (Pluto Club). He has served as president of the Medical Staff at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.
Dr. Wells is president of the Wound Healing Society and a past president of the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists and the American Association of University Pathologists.
Within his laboratory, Dr. Wells and his research team are aiming to gain a better understanding of how cells respond to their local environment. Due to the widespread implications of such research, Dr. Wells has been featured in several publications in addition to scientific journals. Ultimately, the importance of his research flows from the provision of reinforcing insights and novel avenues for exploration into the basic signaling pathways, as well as functioning of entire organisms. Currently, Dr. Wells is concentrating his research efforts towards gaining further knowledge of the conditions of dysregulated (tumor dissemination, therapeutic resistance, and metastatic dormancy) and orchestrated (wound healing and organogenesis) responses. These studies are performed in vitro, in animal models, validating in human specimens, and employing novel state-of-the-art all human microphysiological systems. These studies are advancing through preclinical studies, and have been used to develop tools and therapeutics.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in Oral Biology
Dr. Alejandro Almarza is an Associate Professor in Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh with a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. He is the Director of Undergraduate Internship Programs in the Department of Bioengineering as well as the Faculty Advisor of the Student Research Group in the School of Dental Medicine.
Dr. Almarza graduated with a PhD in Bioengineering from Rice University after obtaining a BS in Chemical Engineering from Florida State University. He joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2005.
His research interests lie in the areas of theoretical and experimental bioengineering with a focus on tissue engineering; craniofacial and orthopaedic biomechanics; biomaterials; fibrocartilage healing; and temporomandibular joint.
Dr. Almarza has authored both refereed journal publications and several book chapters. He is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Orthopaedic Research Society, the International Association of Dental Research, the American Association of Dental Research, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society of TMJ Surgeons (invited). He is the Academic Editor of PLoS One and a reviewer for Connective Tissue Research, Micromechanics, Oral Sciences, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, Orthopaedic Research, amongst others.
Job Titles:
- Chief of the Esophageal Unit at Hospital Universitario Fundación Favaloro
Dr. Alejandro Nieponice is currently the Chief of The Esophageal Unit at Hospital Universitario Fundación Favaloro in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also a faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Nieponice got his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Buenos Aires. He joined the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2004. Prior to that, he completed the general surgery residency program in Argentina with a focus on esophageal surgery.
In collaboration with Drs. Stephen Badylak, and Blair Jobe, he is utilizing ECM-derived scaffolds to regenerate esophageal tissue with the aim of decreasing the morbidity and mortality of current surgical procedures. He is also conducting research with other biomaterials to improve healing of gastrointestinal tissue with the aim of decreasing surgical complications.
Dr. Nieponice has pioneered the treatment of esophageal reflux with electrical stimulation of the lower esophageal sphincter becoming the first surgeon worldwide to treat successfully a patient with reflux after a sleeve gastrectomy. He has also developed a program of interventional endoscopy for the treatment of early esophageal cancer and achalasia.
Dr. Nieponice's main goal is to foster clinical translation of novel tissue engineering and minimally invasive approaches by bridging his surgical and research background.
His work has been recognized with more than 40 international abstracts, over 45 peer-reviewed publications, and 4 book chapters. He has served as reviewer for several journals of tissue engineering and biomaterials. The technologies he has been working on with his colleagues led to 3 inventions that are under patenting process. He is currently a founding member of the American Foregut Society (AFS), and member of Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and the Argentinean Surgical Society (MAAC).
Dr. Alejandro Soto-Gutiérrez is a Full Professor (Tenured) in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute (STI). Prior to this he was a Surgery Research Fellow with the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Boston. Dr. Soto-Gutiérrez earned his medical degree at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. While working on his doctorate, he completed a Surgical Fellowship at the Department of Surgery of Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Japan, where he wrote his dissertation on liver tissue engineering.
He won the 2008 Clinical Research Award for a Post-Graduate Fellow in Transplantation from the New England Organ Bank, the 2009 Thomas E. Starzl, MD Postdoctoral Research Award from the American Liver Foundation, the 2012 Faculty Development Award from the American Society of Transplantation, the 2013 Competitive Medical Research Fund Program Award from UPMC Health System, the 2016 (UPP)/UPMC Academic Foundation Research Grant, and The Pittsburgh Liver Research Liver Center Seed Grant 2016-2017.
He has been awarded a National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, Organogenesis, and Co-founder of two startup companies (vonBaerWolff Inc) dedicated to treat liver diseases by manufacturing human hepatocytes and (Pittsburgh ReLiver Inc) using transcriptional reprogramming of hepatocytes. He is also the previous Chair and co-founder of the Transplant Regenerative Medicine Community of Practice (TRM COP) at the AST and Associate Director of the Cellular & Molecular Pathology (CMP Graduate Program in the Department of Pathology). He is the author of more than 95 peer-reviewed publications, 8 book chapters, and edited a book on methods in cell transplantation.
Dr. Soto-Gutierrez's clinical interest is focused on the treatment of liver diseases using regenerative and disruptive approaches with the goal of alleviating the currently growing problem of a scarcity of livers for transplantation. His research interest is focused on the development of new technologies for organ replacement using regenerative medicine approaches (auxiliary partial liver transplantation, cell transplantation, cell and organ engineering, genetic reprogramming) to re-generate entire replacement livers. His laboratory is actively working in liver cell differentiation and understanding hepatic maturation of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells using interactions with liver non-parenchymal liver cells, 3D liver matrix, and different molecules. While portions of the studies are carried out in organ culture systems, several ongoing studies are performed in specially-engineered animal models of liver regeneration to understand the repopulation capacities of hepatic tissue or liver grafts derived from human iPS cells. In addition, Dr. Soto-Gutierrez's laboratory is interested in strategies for reprogramming diseased livers and to induce super functions in livers (e.g. acute or chronic liver failure, liver steatosis, liver preservation).
Dr. Allison Bean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She obtained BS in Bioengineering from Rice University before graduating with an MD as well as a PhD in Bioengineering as a student in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program. She completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a primary care sports medicine fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Bean is currently board certified in both physical medicine and rehabilitation and sports medicine by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Bean's research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of musculoskeletal tissue injury and repair, using this knowledge to guide the development of novel regenerative rehabilitation therapies to improve physical function. She is particularly interested in how sex and aging influence disease and recovery in musculoskeletal disorders. Her work is currently funded by the University of Pittsburgh KL2 scholars program, as well as the Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research and Training.
Dr. Bean's clinical practice focuses on non-surgical treatment of sports injuries, including joint, tendon, and ligament disorders. She specializes in the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound for diagnostic and interventional applications including administration of orthobiologics.
She is a member of the Association of Academic Physiatrists (Board of Trustees), American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and the Orthopedic Research Society. Dr. Bean is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Before working at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Amanda Clark completed her PhD in cancer therapy and immunology at Griffith University, Australia. She served as a postdoctoral and research associate studying metastatic tumor biology at Pitt from 2013-2019. Dr. Clark currently works as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology where her current research interests include:
Metastatic cancer biology
Models of metastasis
Promoters of metastatic dormancy
Drivers of metastatic emergence
Extracellular vesicles
Microphysiological systems (organ-on-a-chip)
Therapeutic resistance
The Clark Lab research program focuses on liver metastasis. There investigations focus on de te rmining the operative molecular underpinnings of metastatic dormancy and recurrence within the liver in order to apply such findings to identify new therapeutic targets to prevent recurrence and turn metastatic disease into a chronic, manageable disease. Dr. Clark and her team utilize a novel all-human ex vivo 3D hepatic microphysiological system (MPS) to study this evolving metastatic phenomenon. This MPS has not only enabled the recreation of dormant-emergent metastatic cancer progression as observed in vivo but also the identification of mechanisms, biomarkers, and new therapeutic opportunities to target the various stages of metastasis.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Society for Neuroscience
- Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Andrew Schwartz is a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schwartz has adjunct appointments at the Center for Neural Basis Cognition (a joint venture of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University), at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and at Pitt's Department of Bioengineering and its Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Schwartz received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1984 with a thesis entitled "Activity in the Deep Cerebellar Nuclei During Normal and Perturbed Locomotion." He then went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he worked with Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos, who was developing the concept of directional tuning and population-based movement representation in the motor cortex. While there, Dr. Schwartz was instrumental in developing the basis for three-dimensional trajectory representation in the motor cortex.
In 1988, Dr. Schwartz began his independent research career at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. There, he developed a paradigm to explore the continuous cortical signals generated throughout volitional arm movements. This was done by using monkeys trained to draw shapes while recording single-cell activity from their motor cortices. After developing the ability to capture a high fidelity representation of movement intention from the motor cortex, Dr. Schwartz teamed up with engineering colleagues at Arizona State University to develop cortical neural prosthetics. The work has progressed to the point that monkeys can now use these recorded signals to control motorized arm prostheses to reach out and grasp a piece of food and return it to the mouth.
Dr. Schwartz moved from the Barrow Neurological Institute to the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego in 1995 and then to the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. In addition to the prosthetics work, he has continued to utilize the neural trajectory representation to better understand the transformation from intended to actual movement using motor illusions in a virtual reality environment.
Dr. Schwartz is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Institute of Physics, and the International Psychophysical Society. He has received numerous awards for his pioneering research efforts. Most recently he received the Carnegie Science Award for Life Sciences (2010), the International Brain Mapping & Intraoperative Surgical Planning Society Pioneer in Medicine Award (2010), the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award (2012), and the Clinical Research Forum Research Achievement Award (2013).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the Heart Institute at UPMC Children 's Hospital of Pittsburgh
- Member of the American College of Cardiology
Dr. Anita Saraf is an Assistant Professor in the Heart Institute at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Saraf is fellowship-trained in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD). She holds dual academic appointments in the Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In addition to her position in the Heart Institute at UPMC Children's, she also is a member of the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute.
Dr. Saraf earned her doctorate in bioengineering from William Marsh Rice University in Houston, Texas, and her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Saraf then completed both her internal medicine residency and ACHD fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Saraf is a member of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. She also serves as a reviewer for these journals: Heart, Congenital Heart Disease, and European Journal of Pharmacology.
Dr. Anna Balazs is the John A. Swanson Chair in Engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering and a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Pitt's Department of Chemistry.
Dr. Balazs received a MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and went on to earn her PhD from the same university. Her postdoctoral research was completed at Brandeis University, MIT, and the University of Massachusetts. She has also held the position of visiting professor at the Scripps Research Institute in Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Anne Robertson is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Robertson holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. She has also served as a Visiting Professor at many universities, including the University of Aachen, Germany; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon; and Bernoulli Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In addition, she has acted as a Faculty Researcher with the Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory (2000-2007).
Dr. Robertson earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University. She then studied at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned her MS and PhD, both in Mechanical Engineering. She continued her post-doctoral training at Berkeley in the Department of Chemical Engineering as a President's Postdoctoral Fellow.
Dr. Robertson is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Bioengineering. In 2013, she was 1 of 19 women admitted into the 2013-2014 class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE) at Drexel University. She was a Kakenhi-invited speaker at the 6th International Intracranial Stent Meeting (ICS09), Sendai, Japan, August 2009. In 2007, she was awarded the Beitle-Veltri Memorial Outstanding Teaching Award, presented to one faculty member in the Swanson School of Engineering per year.
Dr. Robertson's research interests include continuum mechanics with a particular emphasis on cerebral vascular disease, constitutive modeling of soft biological tissues, and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics. Examples of her current funding support include:
The link between hemodynamics and wall structure in cerebral aneurysms
Mathematical and computational modeling of human physiology
Novel guidewires for smooth navigation in neuro intervention
Dilatable ports for deep brain access
Training of biomechanics in regenerative medicine
Job Titles:
- Professor and Dean of the School
Dr. Anthony Delitto is Professor and Dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. In May 2016, he was named Director of the Comparative Effectiveness Research Center for the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC.
Dr. Delitto was a member of the recently convened Chronic Low Back Pain Task Force at NIH and has been a member of the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research since 2015. He is a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and has received numerous awards and recognitions from APTA, including the Mary McMillan (2008) and the John HP Maley Lecture Awards, the Lucy Blair Service Award, the Marion Williams Award for Research, and the Helen J. Hislop Award for Outstanding Contributions to Professional Literature. He is a seven-time winner of the Orthopaedic Section, APTA's Steven J. Rose Award for Excellence in Clinical Research.
Dr. Anthony Demetris is currently the Endowed Chair and the Starzl Professor of Liver and Transplant Pathology in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the Director of the Division of Transplantation Pathology and of the Research Histology Shared Research Laboratory, both at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Demetris joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1986 after attending medical school and completing his residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the Department of Pathology.
In addition to his academic positions, Dr. Demetris is actively involved in clinical research. Dr. Demetris' primary research interests lie in:
the immunobiology of tolerance induction and chronic rejection
the role of cytokines in growth control of biliary epithelium
digital pathology for enhancing transplantation pathology and research
Dr. Antonio D'Amore is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. D'Amore received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, in 2004. He continued his studies at the Imperial College of London, United Kingdom, obtaining in 2007 an MS in Biomedical Engineering. In 2011, Dr. D'Amore earned his PhD in Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh/University of Palermo. Dr. D'Amore also serves as group leader and head of the cardiac tissue engineering program at Fondazione RiMED. RiMED is an international partnership between the Italian Government, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) aiming to establish a world class biomedical research and biotechnology center in Europe. His middle term mission as a RiMED group leader is to establish a successful cardiovascular tissue engineering program in Italy at the Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center. The RiMED Cardiac Tissue Engineering laboratory, currently 28 scientist strong, was established in 2020 and is located in Palermo, Italy.
Since 2011, Dr. D'Amore has been with the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, serving as a post-doc in tissue engineering and biomechanics. He continued on from 2013-2016 as a Research Associate, in early 2017 moving into the position of Research Assistant Professor and in 2023 into his current position of Associate Professor. Since 2008, Dr. D'Amore has been a bioengineering industry consultant in both the U.S. and Italy. He is the author of more than 198 publications including peer-reviewed journal articles (>56), book chapters (2), international conference abstracts and extended abstracts (>115), biomedical devices patents applications (12), US, EU and Japan patents (9) and software to model biological systems (2). From 2007, he has been the recipient of numerous research awards, he obtained as PI or Co-I, which cumulatively secured funding for more than $11 M. Dr. D'Amore is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Neoolife - a Pitt startup focusing on tissue engineering heart valve technology. In 2018, Dr. D'Amore won the Franco Strazzabosco Career Award for Young Engineers from the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation, this recognition is granted under the patronage of the Italian president of the Republic as tribute to the entrepreneurial courage of Italian engineers, who strive in applying scientific discoveries to public advantage. Dr D'Amore is senior member of the US National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. D'Amore's research seeks to couple a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between scaffolds micro-structure, mechanics, and endogenous tissue growth with the development of novel biomaterials for tissue engineering strategies. The focus of his research is upon unmet clinical needs in cardiovascular diseases. Recent areas of interest include: quantitative histology and biomaterials micro-structure image-based analysis, structural modeling strategies to guide tissue engineering scaffold fabrication, mechanical and topological conditioning for tissue elaboration, development of cardiac restrain devices, vascular grafts and engineered heart valves. Dr. D'Amore's project funding (selected and currently active) comes from the National Institutes of Health (STTR # R41HL167502), the European Research Council (ERC-CoG BIOMITRAL # 101002561, ERC-PoC BioChord # 101123370 with host RiMED Italy), the RiMED Foundation, the Italian Minister of Health (PoC 2022), the Italian Minister of Education(PRIN2023) as well industrial partners such as Advanced Solutions Life Sciences and Adeka Corporation.
Dr. Bernard Costello serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Science Integration and works within the senior administration in the Health Sciences and at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He has been a full-time faculty member at Pitt since 2001 and is the former dean of the School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Costello is a tenured Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Chief of Pediatric Maxillofacial Surgery at UPMC Children's Hospital where he is a surgeon on the cleft-craniofacial team. Dr. Costello earned his doctorates in medicine and dental medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. Following his residency training at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Costello completed a pediatric craniofacial fellowship at the Posnick Center for Facial Surgery and Georgetown University Medical Center.
In his role as Associate Vice Chancellor, he is charged with driving integration amongst the health science schools in areas such as curriculum development, clinical team development, community engagement, and interprofessional educational platforms. As Director for the Center for Interprofessional Education (CIPE), he has built cross-institutional engagement and platforms for students, faculty, and staff.
Dr. Costello is known primarily for his translational research in regenerative medicine strategies for craniofacial deformities and has been a primary investigator and collaborator for projects and multi-institutional grants aimed at developing regenerative technologies with Pitt's Center for Craniofacial Regeneration. He also authored novel guidelines for responsible pain management that focus on a non-opioid approach and has been a strong advocate for measures to fight the opioid addiction crisis. He has published numerous peer-reviewed publications, and has served as an editor and authored content for several key texts focusing on craniomaxillofacial reconstruction.
Dr. Costello has also served in leadership positions with a number of professional associations, boards and foundations. He is currently the President for the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Past-President of the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, and Past-President of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. Dr. Costello regularly lectures worldwide on pediatric facial disorders and craniofacial regenerative translational research. He also treats facial injuries for the Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey team in conjunction with UPMC Sports Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the Heart Institute
Dr. Bernhard Kühn is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist, Co-Director of the Heart Institute, Associate Director of the Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research, and Director of Research in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
As a physician-scientist, Dr. Kühn's area of excellence is laboratory investigation. His research is on the century-old question of whether and to what extent mammalian hearts can regenerate themselves, which is directly related to heart failure, a significant global public health problem. Dr. Kühn's approach involves basic and translational research and is synergistic with his clinical interest in heart muscle diseases (cardiomyopathy).
Dr. Kühn graduated from the medical school of the Freie Universität Berlin in 1997 and received a doctor medicinae (Dr. med., a PhD equivalent) degree in 1999. He is now a board-certified pediatric cardiologist in the United States and directs a translational research team.
As a graduate student, Dr. Kühn studied the signal transduction of G-protein coupled receptors. He came to the United States for residency training in Pediatrics at Yale (1999-2002), followed by fellowship training in Pediatric Cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital (2002-2005). After a research fellowship with Mark Keating (2004-2005), he established his independent laboratory.
Dr. Kühn's research team has three interconnected goals: 1.) to understand the mechanisms of cellular growth and proliferation in the heart; 2.) to provide mechanistic explanations for the huge differences in regenerative activity between biological systems; and 3.) drawing on the answers to these two fundamental questions, to conduct translational research that implements basic research results for the diagnosis and treatment of myocardial diseases.
Prior to his lab's work, it was commonly thought that heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) are in irreversible proliferative arrest after birth and that myocardial regeneration cannot be increased in mammals. Physicians and scientists were skeptical that it would be possible to stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation after birth, let alone that this mechanism would regenerate myocardium.
Dr. Kühn's team has demonstrated that the post-natal heart has cardiomyocytes that can be stimulated to divide and give rise to myocardial regeneration. They have taken the approach of using extracellular factors to stimulate this subpopulation to divide and proliferate. Dr. Kühn's team has demonstrated that a peptide of periostin, a component of the extracellular matrix, and neuregulin1, a growth factor, stimulates cardiomyocyte proliferation and myocardial regeneration in animal models of myocardial infarction. In addition, they have shown that both factors activate the same cellular mechanism, which is proliferation of a subpopulation of mononucleated cardiomyocytes. The researchers have identified and characterized the receptors and intracellular pathways by which periostin peptide and neuregulin1 act. Administration of recombinant neuregulin1 was effective in adult patients with heart failure (phase II trials).
The team has developed a cellular growth chart of the human heart. Their model shows that cardiomyocyte proliferation and enlargement both contribute to developmental myocardial growth between birth and adulthood. The activity of cardiomyocyte proliferation in young humans leads to the following conclusions, from which Dr. Kühn's current research efforts are based: first, young humans may be able to regenerate heart muscle; if cardiomyocyte proliferation is a natural mechanism of myocardial growth in young humans, then it may be a mechanism that is altered in myocardial diseases; and it raises the possibility to stimulate this process therapeutically in young humans with the goal of promoting myocardial regeneration.
Job Titles:
- Director of the AAV Gene Therapy Core
Dr. Bing Wang is currently the Director of the AAV Gene Therapy Core as well as an Associate Professor in the Vascular Medicine Institute in the Department of Medicine and Division of Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Additionally, he currently holds a position as an Associate Professor in the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung and Blood Vascular Medicine Institute and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Wang received his MD from Tong-Ji Medical School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. After receiving his medical degree, he studied at the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, where he earned his PhD in Molecular Biology and Virology. Dr. Wang then held a position as an Associate Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China while simultaneously working a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. He also spent time as the Physician-in-Charge at Institute of Geriatrics, Tong-Ji Medical School in Wuhan.
When Dr. Wang joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1999, he was a Research Associate in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry and was subsequently promoted to Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (2006-2022). Shortly before becoming a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Wang was awarded two, 2-year postdoctoral scholarships. The first scholarship was from the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Research Center and the second was from the Center for Cell Therapeutics. He has also repeatedly won the Orthopaedic Research Society's New Investigator Recognition Award (2007, 2011) and also won the North American Spine Society and the Spine Journal's 2011 Outstanding Paper Award (Basic Science).
Dr. Wang's current research interest is focused on gene and cell therapies combined with bioengineering for muscle diseases and regenerative medicine, especially for the viral vector-mediated in vivo gene replacement and anti-inflammation to treat genetic musculoskeletal diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). He has a long history of working on gene- and cell-based therapies for musculoskeletal injuries and diseases (heart and lung), mainly by using recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors, and have extensive, published expertise and technology to develop these vectors for the basic and translational researches. He is also actively engaged in multiple applications of different viral vectors for gene and cell therapies, such as the ex vivo gene transfer-based genetic modification of stem cell and gene-activated bio-scaffold for hard and soft tissue healing. Dr. Wang's current research interests include:
Gene replacement and anti-inflammation for the treatment of neuromuscular genetic disease
Gene therapy for the treatment of heart, lung, and blood disorders
Vascular-targeted gene therapy for tissue regeneration
Gene- and cell-activated 3D bioscaffolds for tissue regeneration and repair
Development of gene delivery system for in vivo and ex vivo gene therapy
Since 2008, he has authored/co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, 4 review papers, 6 book chapters, and has published 90 abstracts in national/international conferences. As an expert in gene therapy, Dr. Wang has several collaborations with many laboratories, internal and external to the University of Pittsburgh. He also participates on the Editorials Boards of several professional journals and grant review panels and he has been serving as the Deputy Editor for Molecular Therapy Methods & Clinical Development (2015-2022), an official journal of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Dr. Wang was elected to the Nominating Committee of the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) for the 2013-2014 term and he served as the Chair of the Muscle Topic Committee for the 2018-2020 term, ORS. He also has served as a board member of the Musculoskeletal Disorders Gene & Cell Therapy Committee for the 2010-2016 term, ASGCT.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Human Anatomy
Dr. Burhan Gharaibeh is a non-tenured faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences, and an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to his current appointment, he worked as a Senior Researcher at Biopatterning and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Stem Cell Research Center at the McGowan Institute..
Dr. Gharaibeh received his PhD in Zoology from Texas Tech University in 1997. He also has an MSc in Zoology and a BSc in Biological Sciences, both from Yarmouk University.
Dr. Gharaibeh is a member of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society. He also participates in community outreach by presenting popular scientific lectures on the topic of stem cells, bioethics, and regenerative medicine to various high schools and adult education programs in the area.
Dr. Gharaibeh is a journal reviewer for Advances in Physiology Education 3 Biotech. Springer Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology, Cells, PLOS One, Scientific Reports (Nature); Cell Proliferation in Basic and Clinical Sciences; Inflammation; and Materials.
Job Titles:
- Fellow in Interventional Cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Dr. Catalin Toma is currently a Fellow in Interventional Cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Previously, Dr. Toma was a Fellow in Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Dr. Toma attended the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ia?i, Romania, where he received his MD. He completed his post-doctoral studies in Cardiology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where he focused on cell transplantation and gene therapy strategies for heart failure. Dr. Toma completed his residency at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center-College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He held several positions throughout the years which include a Resident Physician in Internal Medicine at the Cardiology Center and part-time tutor in Physiology at the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Dr. Toma was also a Research Student at St. George's Hospital Medical Center in London, United Kingdom, and also at the University of Aarhus, in Aarhus, Denmark. In addition, he completed a Research Associate position at the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy.
Job Titles:
- Medical Director of Lung Transplantation
Dr. Chadi Hage is the Medical Director of Lung Transplantation in the Department of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to this appointment, he was an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN. There, he was also a member of the Thoracic Transplantation Program at the Indiana University Health-Methodist Hospital.
Dr. Hage received his MD at the Lebanese University School of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon. He then completed an Internal Medicine internship at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut. His second Internal Medicine internship was conducted at State University of New York-Health Science Center at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at Indiana University School of Medicine. He then completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine with a focus on immunology of lung infections.
Dr. Hage is American Board of Internal Medicine-certified in Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine with a strong interest in lung immunology as well as pulmonary infections and fungal diseases. His research and clinical activities are in the fields of fungal infections, lung transplant, ECMO, and transplant critical care. Dr. Hage is well published on endemic mycoses (histoplasmosis and blastomycosis), fungal infections of the immunocompromised patients, as well as outcomes of lung transplants.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Dr. Vera Donnenberg is an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy. She is an Affiliate to the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies for the Association of American Medical Colleges (CFAS-AAMC), where she served as a member of the Administrative Board. She also served as a Regent of the Board of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP) and currently serves as an Ambassador to the Eurasian Hematology Oncology Group, an international organization that promotes oncology research and clinical interventions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Americas.
Job Titles:
- Lead Surgical Anesthetist
Friedrich AD, Campo VA, Cela EM, Morelli AE, Shufesky WJ, Tckacheva OA. Leoni J, Paz M, Larregina AT, and Daniel H. González Maglio. (Larregina AT last Co-autor). Oral administration of Lipoteichoic acid from Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG overcomes UVB-induced immunosuppression and impairs skin tumor growth in mice. Eur. J Immunol. 49:2095-2102. 2019.
Job Titles:
- Financial Analysts Manager
Job Titles:
- Facility and Surgery Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Finance & Operations
- Director, Finance & Operations / Pitt McGowan Institute / University of Pittsburgh
Job Titles:
- Grants & Contracts Manager ( Pre & Post - Award )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director of Fiscal Operations for the Center
Mr. Brian Smith is the Director of Fiscal Operations for the Center for Military Medicine Research as well as the Department of Plastic Surgery. He also serves as Financial Officer for the Wound Research Alliance (WRA) as a "clinical accelerator" - based out of the Department of Plastic Surgery - moving wound care research into clinical practice.
Mr. Smith's research administration experience includes fifteen years as a senior member of the fiscal operations team at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. During his tenure, he has been instrumental in managing special projects and tasks requested by his Department Chairs and has ensured that the general ledger, accounting transactions and personnel reporting are maintained in accordance with GAAP, University policies and procedures and other external requirements from federal and state governments, private industry, and philanthropic sources.
Prior to this, Mr. Smith was an Accountant and Assistant Manager of General Accounting at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) where he was responsible for daily management and accounting activities relating to UPCI's institutional funding.
Mr. Smith received his BSBA in Accounting from Robert Morris University in 2002. While working full-time at the University of Pittsburgh, he obtained the necessary experience and knowledge to pass testing to be recognized as a Certified Research Administrator (CRA). This certification is administered by the Research Administrators Certification Council. Mr. Smith has over nineteen years of combined financial experience in the academic and hospital administration sectors.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- QA Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Strategy and Business Development Officer / McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine
- Strategy and Business Development Officer / Pitt McGowan Institute / University of Pittsburgh
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Financial Analysts Manager
Job Titles:
- CPCS Program and QA Director
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Scientific Operations
- Director, Scientific Operations / Pitt McGowan Institute / University of Pittsburgh
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Deputy Director, Pitt McGowan Institute / Director of the Center for Pre - Clinical Tissue Engineering, Pitt McGowan Institute
Job Titles:
- Archivist & Critical Care Technician