Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
IRAS ID
236570
Contact name
Paolo De Coppi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
W1095, Oak GOSHC; 16ICH03, CDH UK SParks GOSHC; 668294, EU Funding; NIHR-RP-2014-04-046, NIHR award
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Congenital and acquired diseases can result from organ or tissue failure. Current therapy is limited to organ transplantation. However, this is not a simple solution to the problem, donor shortages mean patients wait on transplant lists for long periods of time.
Tissue-engineering offers a new way to treat patients who are suffering from organ or tissue failure. Through this laboratory research study we aim to understand the processes required to engineer new tissues and organs in the laboratory, with a view to one day replacing a failing organ or tissue with a tissue engineered graft.
Organs are complex structures containing cells that perform the function of the organ, along with supporting structures such as blood vessels, muscle, connective tissue and nervous tissue. We will request tissue removed following routine surgery, tissue that would normally be discarded, to find the best way of growing replacement parts of the gastrointestinal tract, muscle and lung. Patients undergoing routine surgery at GOSH will be approached and invited to participate in this research.
As part of translating this technology into clinical practice it will be necessary to test tissue engineered products in animal models. These will range from small animal models of disease, to large pre-clinical animal studies that will be used to assess safety and efficacy before moving into a human clinical trial.As part of this research project we will collect healthy portions of tissue removed during normal care for laboratory research. For example, if a patient is undergoing a procedure to remove a diseased organ or tissue, we will not collect the diseased tissue, but if an area removed is deemed 'healthy' by pathology we will take a small portion of this tissue.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EE/0150
Date of REC Opinion
9 May 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion