The new field of Regenerative Medicine is unique as it beginning to encompass nearly every field in medicine and surgery. Every year, new fundamental and applied discoveries bring important new insight and capabilities that press the field toward the first deployment of new therapies in clinical practice. The OHSU Center for Regenerative Medicine is the first Regenerative Medicine laboratory in Oregon, and we are working to build collaborative research programs throughout the campus, nationally and internationally. These partnerships will allow us to efficiently build the critical elements of knowledge and technology in this rapidly evolving field.

Over the past 15 years that our team of scientists has been working together, we have established research efforts using stem and progenitor cells for regeneration of muscle, nerves, skin, blood vessels, and now even the heart and brain.  We have initiated studies to apply the profound ability of stem and progenitor cells to modulate inflammation in order to treat acute lung injury, shock, and nerve and spinal cord injury.  

Many of the most severe diseases without good treatments we face today are those with more than one pathologic process—that thwart conventional drug therapy. Stem cells, with their ability to combat multiple pathologic processes simultaneously and the capability to deliver many potentially therapeutic growth factors, anti-inflammatory peptides and proteins, have the potential to solve some of the most difficult unsolved problems in medicine and surgery today.