Dr. Alejandro Nieponice is currently a Research Assistant Professor of the department of surgery at University of Pittsburgh and faculty of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He is also a surgical associate and director of the Clinical Translation Unit at the Austral University Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dr. Nieponice joined the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2004 where he conducted his postdoctoral work with Dr. David A. Vorp in the vascular and biomechanics research lab. Prior to that, he completed his MD course at University of Buenos Aires and completed the general surgery residency program at the same institution with focus on esophageal surgery.
Part of his research has been focused on developing a tissue engineered vascular graft with stem cells in order to improve the outcome of current surgical therapies for vascular disease. For that, he received a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the American Heart Association. He is also studying the effect of mechanical stimulation on progenitor cells to better understand the milieu where the engineered grafts need to be constructed.
On a separate study, in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Badylak and Dr. Adolfo Badaloni, he is utilizing ECM derived scaffolds to regenerate esophageal tissue with the aim of decreasing the morbidity and mortality of current surgical procedures.
Dr. Nieponice’s main goal is to foster clinical translation of novel tissue engineering approaches by bridging his surgical and research background. To accomplish that, he has promoted the creation of a Clinical Translation Unit within the operative room, providing full cell culture capabilities to facilitate clinical translation of cell-based technologies.
His work has been recognized with more than 40 international abstracts, more than 10 peer-reviewed publications and 2 book chapters. The technologies he has been working on with his colleagues led to 2 inventions that are under patenting process. He is currently a member of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS).
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr. Alejandro NieponicePhone: 412-235-5245
Email: nieponicea@upmc.edu