Fundamental Research |
Research at 'The Core' at the Ghent University
We came to understand that the future of tissue reconstruction will no longer be the transplantation of tissues within the same body but rather the construction of autologous body parts in a laboratory environment, outside of the body. This is called tissue engineering. Tissue Engineering will avoid most of the disadvantages of the present reconstructive techniques and will guarantee the use of body-own tissue. We will be able to re-build an exact copy of the part that was removed, in size, in shape and in composition. But then without diseased or damaged cells.
But we are far from our target. Many research centers in the world are working on the dream to be a contractor in human tissues. The road is still long. There is a lot that needs to be discovered, developed, checked, double-checked and tested in humans. The department of plastic and reconstructive surgery of the Ghent University Hospital and the Tissue engineering and Biomaterials Lab of the Gent University want to be the frontrunners in this exciting research.
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The strongest asset of our group is its multidisciplinary approach. From the beginning we have decided to work together with many other researchers in other faculties of the UGent, other institutions like the VIB (Vlaams lnstituut voor Biotechnologie), IMEC and even other universities. Secondly, our group has (and this is unique) nearly unlimited access to human tissues. We harvest and isolate human stem cells for research purposes. And these collaborations are starting to pay off on the first investments. Recently we published a landmark paper on spheroids in Nature Methods. This would never be possible, for anyone, to do alone. This puts us in the driver seat for further research in spheroids and organoids.
Collaborations as with the Red Cross and UZ Gent GMP facility are promising to keep innovating in the future. The most crucial part is that we don’t work in our separate silos. We have created a collaborative organ where we can think, reflect, brainstorm, together, and move ahead as one team. Medicine, chemistry, engineering, biotechnology and basic sciences are now all united. Together we mine this exciting field of Tissue Engineering. To further facilitate this collaboration, we have the GATE platform (Ghent Advanced Therapies and Tissue Engineering), which was created in 2022 and held several industrial events bringing Ugent researchers together with the pharma industry. With technology evolving rapidly we are the hatch to bring tissue engineering closer to the clinic every day.
Collaborations as with the Red Cross and UZ Gent GMP facility are promising to keep innovating in the future. The most crucial part is that we don’t work in our separate silos. We have created a collaborative organ where we can think, reflect, brainstorm, together, and move ahead as one team. Medicine, chemistry, engineering, biotechnology and basic sciences are now all united. Together we mine this exciting field of Tissue Engineering. To further facilitate this collaboration, we have the GATE platform (Ghent Advanced Therapies and Tissue Engineering), which was created in 2022 and held several industrial events bringing Ugent researchers together with the pharma industry. With technology evolving rapidly we are the hatch to bring tissue engineering closer to the clinic every day.