McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Keith Cook, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is the CMU lead in a research agreement between the Mayo Clinic and CMU to transform organ transplantation. The institutions will bioengineer innovative approaches to address barriers in organ transplantation.
“This relationship with the esteemed CMU Biomedical Engineering team is a very important step in Mayo Clinic’s Transforming Transplant strategic initiative,” says Burcin Taner, MD, chair of the Transplant Center at Mayo Clinic in Florida. “Research and innovation breakthroughs resulting from this initiative will address challenges and limitations that have historically existed for transplantation and subsequently unmet patient needs.”
“Mayo Clinic’s Center for Regenerative Medicine is excited to collaborate with Transplant Center colleagues at Mayo Clinic to support the innovation being driven through our unique engagement with CMU,” says Guojun Bu, PhD, associate director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Florida. “This initiative will accelerate our mission in transforming the practice of medicine through biotherapeutic technologies that make organ transplantation more accessible, affordable and available to a broader population.”
As part of the collaboration, Mayo Clinic biomedical researchers and CMU faculty will focus on four core areas:
- Biofabrication.
- Organ repair.
- Organ monitoring using sensor systems.
- Artificial intelligence to optimize transplant processes.
“Mayo Clinic is the preeminent academic medical center and the largest organ transplant provider in the United States, and CMU is a leader in innovating and applying cutting-edge technologies to real-world problems,” says Dr. Cook. “We are excited to bring these leading institutions together to create real improvements in access to, and effectiveness of, organ transplantation.”
CMU’s commitment to organ bioengineering is ongoing through its Bioengineered Organs Initiative founded and directed by Dr. Cook. This initiative facilitates collaborative research focused on designing, creating, and testing a new generation of long-term replacement organs that are fully biological, artificial, or a combination of both.
Both institutions also will participate in ongoing seminars focused on the challenges facing organ transplantation and the development of new technologies to address them.
Mayo Clinic is committed to transplantation research and innovation. Mayo Clinic’s Transplant Center, with locations in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota, has performed more than 27,000 organ transplants since 1963. More than 100,000 patients nationwide are awaiting organ transplants.
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