Bioprinting pioneer and surgeon, Anthony Atala visits Spain to talk about medical research into reconstructing vital organs from their own cells
By Javier Arroyo –El Pais
Peruvian surgeon, urologist and bioengineer, Anthony Atala, 65, has the perfect credentials for regenerative medicine research. Arriving in the U.S. from his native Peru aged 11, Atala now directs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina and is professor and head of the Urology Department at Wake Forest University. Sixteen technological applications developed in his laboratory have already been used on humans. Winner of numerous awards, he is one of the first organ bioprinters, something which involves reconstructing tissues and organs to implant in humans using the patient’s own cells. This is basically the definition of regenerative medicine. Atala visited Granada, Spain last week as a guest of Granada University’s Social Council and talked to EL PAÍS about his work.