When your car’s fuel pump wears out, you don’t junk the car, you replace the pump and drive on down the road. Today, when people need replacement parts for their bodies, they have to either make do with a plastic or metal replacement device that temporarily extends life, or wait for someone else’s generosity or misfortune to make their organs available. For a century, doctors and scientists have dreamed of a time when new, tailor-made organs could be grown for their recipients. That time is at hand.

, a pioneer in regenerative medicine, says constructed biological substitutes will restore and maintain normal function in diseased and injured tissues. Atala led the team that developed the first lab-grown organ, a bladder, to be implanted into a human.

Atala will discuss the promise of regenerative medicine at the 22nd Annual Robert F. Rushmer Lecture, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Friday, March 26, in Hogness Auditorium (HSB A-420) at the 91̽»¨Health Sciences Center. A reception will follow from 5:45-6:45 pm in Foege North Lobby.

In his lecture, “Regenerative Medicine: New Approaches to Health Care,” Atala will review recent advances in the field and describe applications of new technologies that may offer novel therapies for patients with end-stage tissue and organ failure.

As the population ages, the availability of donor organs for transplant diminishes, Atala says. But scientists in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering are learning to apply the principles of cell transplantation, materials science, and bioengineering to construct biological substitutes.

Nuclear transfer and other sources of stem cells, such as those derived from amniotic fluid and the placenta, offer a potentially limitless source of cells for tissue engineering applications. The rapidly advancing stem cell field is opening new options for therapy, according to Atala.

He is the W. H. Boyce Professor and Director of the , chair of the Department of Urology at , and a practicing pediatric urologist at in Winston-Salem, N.C. He also is an associate professor of bioengineering at .

Atala’s institute is working to develop more than 22 different organs and tissues, including insulin-producing cells and engineered blood vessels for heart bypass surgery. His work is also being applied to war injuries through a federally funded initiative. A project to engineer a human ear was covered this past March on the CBS program, “60 Minutes.” () . He also was featured by U.S. News and World Report in a June 30, 2009,  article,

The annual lecture honors , who founded the 91̽»¨Center for Bioengineering in 1967. The center later grew into the , jointly administered by the 91̽»¨College of Engineering and the 91̽»¨School of Medicine.  An extraordinary pioneer, mentor, and leader, Rushmer had a vision to establish a place where many different disciplines work together towards a common goal of providing an improved quality of life for all.

The lecture is free and open to all.

For more information contact Shirley Nollette 206.685.2002.

Malnutrition stunts growth, impairs mental function and reproduction, and diminishes a person’s productivity and work capacity.

In fact, organizations concerned with improving health among the world’s poor rank improved nutrition as one of the essential steps toward progress. Good nutrition prevents disease and thus lowers healthcare costs, but more importantly, it improves a person’s ability to overcome poverty.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last fall awarded Buddy Ratner and David Castner, both 91̽»¨professors of bioengineering and chemical engineering, $640,000 to develop a an inexpensive micronutrient rapid measuring device that could be used to detect deficiencies in settings with scarce resources. Pinpointing micronutrient deficiencies in malnourished populations would allow targeted supplements to improve people’s health and lives.

Testing for micronutrients currently is a multistep lab procedure that cannot be done in the field. The two co-investigators intend to demonstrate a simple, practical test for measuring iron, iodine, folic acid, vitamin A and zinc — micronutrients associated with good health.

“The goal is to be able to test for all of these at once using a low-cost method,” Ratner says.

The new technique will use recent developments in mass spectrometry coupled with technologies Ratner has developed in his lab over the last 30 years.

Three new lab positions will be created to staff the one-year, proof-of-concept project.

The technology Ratner and Castner are testing could have broader applications — disease diagnosis, airport security, and even wine tasting.

But the first and main goal is to develop a low cost, easy test to identify missing micronutrients among the poor. Once a person’s specific micronutrient deficiencies are identified, food fortification can be tailored to meet those needs.

A Gates Foundation report credits more attention to micronutrients as a major reason why since 1990 there has been a drop in underweight children under age five. But in some countries, particularly in Africa, HIV infection and under-nutrition reinforce each other to increase the number of underweight children under five.

“Continuing to implement and increase proven approaches to reducing malnutrition will be essential in reversing this trend,” the Gates Foundation report noted.