Dr. Xi (Charlie) Ren, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, delivers an in-depth discussion about regenerative solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs, and his lab’s efforts to engineer advanced organ transplantation options for patients.

Xi Ren was a student of biology during his graduate study, particularly interested in vascular and hematopoietic systems. Dr. Xi Ren earned his BS in biological science and a Ph.D. in cell biology from Peking University. Dr. Xi Ren joined the Laboratory for Organ Engineering and Regeneration at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was selected to be a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. In 2016, Xi Ren was awarded the position of Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He developed complex strategies for engineering practical, working vasculature based on decellularized organ scaffolds. He joined the faculty at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017 and continued his research in the area of biomedical engineering.

Dr. Xi Ren talks about his team’s work at the Ren Lab. The Ren Lab is interested in the interface of biomaterial and stem cell engineering with an ongoing goal of successfully providing advanced regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged or flawed tissues and organs. Dr. Xi Ren states that there is a significant shortage of lungs and livers available for transplantation, thus his lab’s primary mission is to find ways to bioengineer lungs and livers with extremely similar structure and composition for transplantation into patients in need. Dr. Xi Ren discusses the minute details of organ structure and he explains some of the most challenging problems they face when seeking to develop biomedically-engineered working models of human organs.

The biomedical engineering scholar and researcher talks about some of the problematic issues that they must face in their research. He discusses how cells are selected for lung reconstruction, and the importance of stem cell biology, and how cells are used in regard to regeneration. He gives an overview of how they work with purified cells, and how multiple cells are utilized within a specific organ.

Dr. Xi Ren presents his thoughts on the vasculature in regard to transplantations and the critical importance of blood in all systems. He talks about the vasculatures of different organs and explains how their specific characteristics define how they function. The vascular network is essential for every tissue and organ. The Ren Lab’s detailed and extensive research is focused intently on understanding the molecule profiles behind organ-specific vascular phenotypes, maintaining a primary objective of engineering organ-specific vasculature, and impacting the future of organ transplantation.

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