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Atala, Williams Named Fellows of Regenerative Medicine Organization

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Oct. 3, 2012 – Anthony Atala, M.D., and David Williams, Ph.D., from the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, are among 22 regenerative medicine leaders from around the world elected as Founding Fellows of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). In addition, Williams is the new president of the organization.

According to the society, Founding Fellows “represent those who make significant contributions to the development and promotion of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.” The honor recognizes members for their role in shaping the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine field and the society.

The Founding Fellows were recognized during the 2012 TERMIS World Congress in Vienna on Sept. 6.

Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, led the team that was first in the world to engineer an organ in the lab that was successfully implanted in patients. He oversees a team of more than 300 people dedicated to engineering replacement tissues and organs and developing cells therapies for more than 30 different areas of the body. He is editor-in-chief of Stem Cells Translational Medicine and Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy, and associate editor of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, The Journal of Rejuvenation Research and Gene Therapy and Regulation.

Atala is a recipient of many awards, including the U.S. Congress-funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, bestowed on a living American who is currently working on a discovery that will significantly affect society, and the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine, presented to individuals achieving significant, lasting progress.

In 2011 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 300 journal articles and has applied for or received more than 200 national and international patents.

Williams, who is editor-in-chief of  the journal Biomaterials, is director of international affairs at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and has academic and advisory appointments in various countries around the world. He established one of the first research laboratories in Europe concerned with biomaterials science and developed systems for measuring the body’s response to biomaterials.

For many years, Williams advised the European Commission on aspects of research policy. He has published 400 peer-reviewed papers and edited or authored more than 30 books.  He has received major awards from the U.S., European, United Kingdom and Indian societies for biomaterials. In 1999 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest engineering honor in the UK, and also as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, as one of the few overseas fellows.
Media Relations Contacts:
Karen Richardson: krchrdsn@wakehealth.edu,336-716-4453

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