Tissue Engineering & ATEC
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Tissue engineering and the associated clinical application through regenerative medicine represent an emerging revolution in the treatment of human disease.
Tissue
engineering is focused on developing biological substitutes that will
restore, maintain, or improve diseased tissue and organ function and
has direct applications in the treatment of cardiac disease, diabetes,
breast cancer, and a variety of surgical reconstructive applications to
name a few.
In terms of commercialization, according to
the United States Department of Human and Health Services(1) the
projected U.S. market for regenerative medicine is estimated at US$100
Billion, and the world wide market for regenerative medicine is
conservatively estimated to be US$500 Billion by 2010.
The
Australian Tissue Engineering Centre Ltd (ATEC) was recently
established with support from the Victorian State Government
(Department of Innovation, Industry, and Regional Development) in the
form of a Science, Technology and Innovation Grant with the vision of
becoming a focal point in Australia for commercializing collaborative,
world class R&D and testing services in the emergent field of
tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
ATEC was
launched from The Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and is
currently in partnerships with the Australian Stem cell Centre, The
Particulate Fluids Processing Centre at the University of Melbourne,
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash
University, and St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.
The ATEC
business model involves three suites of commercial activity, namely GLP
contract testing services; development and standardization of
TE-materials testing processes and procedures; and organoid research
and development for ex-vivo testing of pharma and bio-compounds based
on proprietary IP.
By linking the core capabilities, expertise
and competencies of it’s collaborators with industry priorities and the
Federal Government’s National Research Priorities, ATEC represents a
unique facility in the Australian Biotechnology sector with capacity to
provide service in response to national and international health care
needs.
ATEC will be relocated to a purpose built,
state-of-the-art facility in December 2006 with over 300 square meters
of dedicated GLP laboratory space and associated infrastructure.
1. 2020: A New Vision – A future for Regenerative Medicine U.S. Department of Health and Human Services March 28 2006.