Jörg Gerlach, M.D., Ph.D., joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 as Professor to the Department of Surgery. Prior to his appointment Dr. Gerlach founded the Charité Institute for Transplantation and Organ Regeneration (CITO) as an Associate Professor to the Department of Surgery at the Charité Medical Faculty of the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. His specialties lie in surgery, hepatology, intensive care and experimental transplantation medicine. Additionally, he has an engineering background with expertise in artificial organ development, hybrid system research and preclinical trial efforts.

As part of his academic training, he has written a thesis in Germany concerning the development of an artificial trachea, as part of a second thesis in the UK he developed a culture model for liver cells and as part of his habilitation in Germany, he developed a clinically applicable bioreactor for liver support. Dr. Gerlach has successfully developed bioreactors for high-density co-culturing of primary cells and stem cells and with such systems he has been able to show that the three main goals of future regenerative medicine can be addressed:

• Development of cell system devices for the production of regenerative mediators by cells for drug therapy.
• Development of systems for the production of cells for transplantation therapy.
• Development of bioreactors for extracorporeal temporary organ support.

• Maintenance and differentiation of cells in vitro for extracorporeal temporary clinical use as a hybrid organ
• Production of cells for cell transplantation in cell-based therapy
• Production of regenerative mediators by cells in bioreactors for regenerative medicine applications

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Jörg Gerlach
Phone: 412-383-7150
Email: joerg.gerlach@cellnet.org