{"430221":{"#nid":"430221","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Mission of Impact","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFrank Barry came all the way from Ireland to Atlanta to add to the discussion at the three-day Business of Regenerative Medicine (BRM): Cells at Work course, last week on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus. But he also took something away.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThis was an outstanding experience,\u201d said Barry, who spoke about mesenchymal stem cell therapies as one of the first presenters on the first day of the workshop (Monday, July 20), hosted by the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience in the new Engineered Biosystems Building. Then he stuck around for a couple more days to absorb everything he could.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cA mixture of science, company presentations, and a view from investors and Wall Street \u2013 the combination was really valuable in terms of getting a good overview about what\u2019s driving the business,\u201d said Barry, professor at the National University of Ireland-Galway, and one of the world\u2019s leading stem cell scientists.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe workshop\u2019s roster of speakers covered elements critical to business success in five growing and evolving technology market areas: mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), cord blood and neural stem cell therapies, immunotherapies, tissue engineering and cell-based devices, and organ-on-a-chip and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technologies. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWe understand already what\u2019s driving the science, but it\u2019s very good for us as scientists to understand what drives the business side of all this,\u201d Barry said. \u201cThis is important stuff, and I\u2019d like to see this conference keep growing in the future.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo would Brock Reeve, executive director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, host of next year\u2019s Business of Regenerative Medicine workshop. The event has grown since he first attended, several years ago at Case Western University. He\u2019d also like to see the industry keep moving in an upward direction and addressed some of the challenges.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThere are always concerns in the field if we don\u2019t see huge results from a clinical trial, so a big question is, how does that impact people\u2019s view of the promise of regenerative medicine,\u201d said Reeve. \u201cWe\u2019re in a complex field and as we think of the business of regenerative medicine, we want to identify technologies that are right for commercialization, and understand at what point do we really know something is ready to move out of the lab and into the clinic.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs a business, regenerative medicine is still very much in the early stages, though there is confidence among research leaders like Bob Guldberg, executive director of the Petit Institute, who said, \u201cOne can think of healthcare innovation potential as being the overlap of what is possible with technology, what is desired or needed by patients and clinicians, and what is viable in the market place. But there remain significant challenges to overcome in terms of showing these technologies are not only safe, but lead to improved outcomes for patients at costs that our health care system can afford.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThat sense of clear-eyed optimism is shared by Reeve, whose feelings about the promise of regenerative medicine are colored by personal experience. His brother, the acclaimed actor\/director Christopher Reeve, who died in 2004, became a quadriplegic after suffering a spinal cord injury in 1995. He and his wife Dana, who succumbed to cancer in 2006, were avid supporters of research in regenerative medicine. Also, Brock Reeve\u2019s father-in-law died from complications of Parkinson\u2019s disease.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cMy brother, my sister-in-law and my father-in-law all had conditions that regenerative medicine can help us either cure or impact or better understand,\u201d Reeve said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the promise of regenerative medicine, that\u2019s the pull. That\u2019s why we see scientists changing directions in their careers.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHe tells the story of Ricardo Dolmetsch, global head of neuroscience at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Boston. \u201cHe was a professor at Stanford, but he changed the focus of his lab because his son was diagnosed with autism and he really wants to understand it,\u201d Reeve said. \u201cSo, he changed directions. He\u2019s trying to have an impact.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe same might be said of the 90-plus people who attended or presented at the BRM workshop last week.\u0026nbsp; One take home message was clear.\u0026nbsp; Unlike even five years ago, companies and investors are placing major financial bets on regenerative therapies, creating optimism that they will soon impact cancer, diabetes, macular degeneration, osteoarthritis, and a broad range of other major unmet clinical needs. \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Business of Regenerative Medicine offered wide-angled view of growing field"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBusiness of Regenerative Medicine offered wide-angled view of growing field\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Business of Regenerative Medicine offered wide-angled view of growing field"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-08-02 21:54:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:19","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-08-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-08-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"430191":{"id":"430191","type":"image","title":"BRM Crowded Room","body":null,"created":"1449254381","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:39:41","changed":"1475895169","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:49"},"430201":{"id":"430201","type":"image","title":"Roy and Barry","body":null,"created":"1449254381","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:39:41","changed":"1475895169","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:49"},"430211":{"id":"430211","type":"image","title":"BRM Presentation","body":null,"created":"1449254381","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:39:41","changed":"1475895169","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:49"}},"media_ids":["430191","430201","430211"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1489","name":"Regenerative Medicine"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}