Regenerative Medicine - from Protocol to Patient

Regenerative medicine is the main field of groundbreaking medical development and therapy using knowledge from developmental and stem cell biology, as well as advanced molecular and cellular techniques. This collection of volumes on Regenerative Medicine: From Protocol to Patient, aims to explain the scientific knowledge and emerging technology, as well as the clinical application in different organ systems and diseases. International leading experts from all over the world describe the latest scientific and clinical knowledge of the field of regenerative medicine. The process of translating science of laboratory protocols into therapies is explained in sections on regulatory, ethical and industrial issues. This collection is organized into five volumes: (1) Biology of Tissue Regeneration, (2) Stem Cell Science and Technology, (3) Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials and Nanotechnology, (4) Regenerative Therapies I, and (5) Regenerative Therapies II. The textbook gives the student, the researcher, the health care professional,  the physician and the patient a complete survey on the current scientific basis, therapeutical protocols, clinical translation and practiced therapies in regenerative medicine.

Volume 1 contains eleven chapters addressing the latest basic science knowledge on the 'Biology of Tissue Regeneration'. The principles of cell regeneration control by extracellular matrix and the biology of stem cell niches are explained. Depicted are the principles of molecular mechanisms controlling asymmetric cell division, stem cell differentiation, developmental and regenerative biology, epigenetic and genetic control as well as mathematical modelling for cell fate prediction. Regenerative biology of stem cells in the central nervous and cardiovascular systems leading to complex tissue regeneration in the model species axolotl and zebrafish, as well as the impact of immune signalling on nuclear reprogramming are outlined. These up to date accounts  gives the readers advanced insights into the biological principles of the regenerative processes in stem cells, tissues and organisms.

Gustav Steinhoff initiated and leads the Reference and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC) of the University Medical Center Rostock. He is known as an expert in the medical field of stem cell therapies and the first clinician to treat patients with intramyocardial transplantation of purified stem cells and is one of the pioneers of these new therapies. Besides his medical study at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Gustav Steinhoff performed research at the Baylor College in Houston, Texas. He has worked as a surgeon at the University of Kiel and the Medical School Hannover, where he was appointed as an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1998.  In 2000 he moved to the University of Rostock as a Director and Chairman of the Department of Cardiac Surgery where he continued his research on cardiac stem cell therapies and tissue engineering.