The 2006 Regenerate World Congress on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine is underway in Pittsburgh, with the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine playing host.

The 2006 Regenerate World Congress focuses on tissue engineering/regenerative medicine approaches to restoring the function of damaged or diseased tissues and organs. The event will also concurrently explore the platform/enabling technologies and many of the broader cross-cutting challenges facing this emerging field of biomedicine. The event is designed for those engaged, or interested in, the fields of cellular therapies, medical devices and artificial organs, biomaterials, bioengineering and clinical translation.

Our goal: To advance tissue engineering/regenerative medicine science and foster interactions that may more rapidly result in new technologies that will benefit patients worldwide.

A very interesting, full agenda is online; you should spend some time browsing. So much more is going on than just the highlights that make the popular science pages, and this is a burgeoning, busy field. From the local Pittsburgh press:

"The public doesn't really understand just how far this science has come," said Alan Russell, conference chairman and director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Hazelwood.

Regenerative medicine - the ability to replace failing and diseased organs - is a vital part of the path to far longer, healthier lives. It isn't the whole path, however: other aspects of degenerative aging must be conquered. It's going to be a big job, but it's possible and plausible; it can be done. Radical life extension through advanced medical technology will happen. The only question is whether we can help it to happen soon enough to benefit those reading this today.

Technorati tags: life extension, regenerative medicine