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.
Medicine by Design, is pleased to welcome, Juan Melero-Martin, PhD. Dr. Melero-Martin is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, a principal faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the inaugural incumbent of an endowed Chair in Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Talk title: Advancing Vascularization Strategies in Regenerative Medicine
This event will be held in-person only at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, Red Room.
About Juan Melero-Martin
Dr. Melero-Martin graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Seville, Spain, in 1998. After working for three years in Industry, he earned a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2005. He then trained as a post-doctoral fellow in the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2008, he joined the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital to run a biomedical research laboratory. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, a principal faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the inaugural incumbent of an endowed Chair in Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Melero-Martin’s research interest is primarily centered on bioengineering blood vessels. He investigates how vascular networks are formed from stem cell differentiation and has developed novel bioengineering applications with clinical translational potential. Dr. Melero-Martin strives to investigate questions that can have a long-lasting impact on regenerative medicine. His research goals are divided into four general categories:
- Therapeutic revascularization of ischemic tissues (i.e., vascular cell therapy).
- Engineering organ-specific vascular niches for tissue regeneration.
- Genetically engineering vascular networks for drug delivery.
- Vascularization of organoid systems.
Dr. Melero-Martin’s laboratory is a reference in human progenitor and pluripotent stem cell-derived vascular cells, areas in which he has contributed multiple original papers. His group has developed novel approaches to bioengineer vascular networks and has shown that bioengineered vascular networks can be used to harness the regenerative potential of other stem cells. In addition, his group developed a model that uses genetically engineered blood vessels to achieve the controlled release of therapeutic proteins in vivo.
Dr. Melero-Martin routinely collaborates and provides expertise to other laboratories in the US and abroad. People from other groups continue to come to his laboratory to learn about stem cell-derived vascular cells and models for building blood vessels. Dr. Melero-Martin has a track record of successfully obtaining funds from multiple sources, including the NIH, the private sector, foundations, and intramural support. The NIH has continuously funded his research since 2009.