The Medicine by Design Global Speaker Series invites established and emerging international leaders in regenerative medicine to engage with our extraordinary community of researchers and clinicians.
Join speaker Bernard Thébaud, Senior Scientist, Regenerative Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Neonatologist, Department of Pediatrics, The Ottawa Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Partnership Research Chair, Regenerative Medicine, University of Ottawa.
Hosted by Medicine by Design, in partnership with the McEwen Stem Cell Institute.
Talk title: Helping Underdeveloped Lungs with Cells – The HULC trials from Petri dish to Patient
About Bernard Thébaud
Dr. Bernard Thébaud is a clinician-scientist with a focus on the clinical translation of stem cell-based therapies for lung diseases. He is a senior scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a neonatologist with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, providing care to critically ill newborns. He is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Thébaud obtained his MD at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg in France and trained in Pediatrics and Neonatology at the University Paris V, where he obtained his MSc and PhD before completing a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Thébaud studies the mechanisms of lung development, injury and repair to design new treatments for incurable lung diseases. His focus is on answering clinically relevant questions for translation into real-life applications. He is now translating innovative cell and gene therapies from the lab into patients to improve outcomes.
Dr. Thébaud has participated on numerous peer reviews committees and scientific advisory boards at the international, national and provincial level, including CIHR and NIH. Dr. Thébaud holds the University of Ottawa Partnership Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine. His research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Stem Cell Network.
Talk abstract
Preterm birth is a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the chronic lung disease that follows ventilator and O2 therapy for acute respiratory failure, is the most common complication of prematurity and accounts for much of the long-term morbidity. BPD lacks effective therapies. Experimental data over the past 15 years have provided some evidence for the potential for cell-based therapies to prevent neonatal lung injury and have led to early phase clinical trials using mesenchymal stromal cells. This presentation will summarize the hazardous path from Petri dish to Patient and acknowledge the current stage of infancy of cell-based therapy. Much more needs to be learned about the biology of these putative repair cells in order to fully harness their therapeutic potential.
This event will be held in-person only at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, Red Room.