Officials with Wake Forest University lured Dr. Anthony Atala from Harvard University with the hope that he would put the school on the map as a center of bioengineering research.
Six years later, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which Atala leads, has gained international recognition for its innovations in stem-cell research and tissue engineering.
State legislators have recognized his work as well. The 2010-11 state budget passed last weekend includes $10 million for the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which involves several partners around the country, including the Wake Forest institute.
The armed-forces effort focuses on creating new tissue and organs for wounded soldiers. This field of medicine, referred to as regenerative medicine, involves using a person's cells to heal and to create new tissue and organs
The infusion of state money is in addition to a five-year, $45 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2008.
With the money from the state, local scientists will begin testing a number of new innovations, including engineered skin, Atala said.
"There is a very serious need for skin for patients with burns, either in the military or the civilian population. Having skin available for patients would be a major benefit," he said.
Breakthroughs by the institute have put it in the vanguard of regenerative medicine. The national media, including Newsweek and 60 Minutes, have taken notice and regularly call or visit Atala.
Dr. Joachim Kohn, the director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials at Rutgers University and one of the lead investigators of the armed forces project, said that few other institutions "have the visibility and reputation of Dr. Atala's operation at Wake Forest."
Since the institute opened in 2004, it has grown from 20 to 270 employees to become an anchor of the downtown Piedmont Triad Research Park.
The institute has formed partnerships with more than 30 universities around the country. It also has international collaboration agreements with universities from Austria to Egypt and has established a joint institute in South Korea.
The institute, based in a five-story, 160,000-square-foot building, has become one of the anchors of the state's emerging biotech industry, which employs 57,000 people, according to the state's Biotechnology Center. Each biotech job creates an additional 4.6 jobs, according to the center.
Gayle Anderson, the president and chief executive officer for the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, said the presence of Atala and the institute send a message to researchers and others in the biotech industry that they can thrive in Winston-Salem.
"He has shown it can work here," Anderson said.
The institute's research has led to a number of breakthroughs, including creating new bladders for young patients and engineering penile erectile tissue in animals, which could pave the way for treating erectile dysfunction and provide benefits for men with penile cancers.
Atala said that his goal for the institute is to continue to improve the lives of his patients.
"Our hope is to deliver technologies to patients and maximize the safety and efficacy of those technologies," he said.
lo'donnell@wsjournal.com
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