New frontiers for joint regeneration with the use of stem cells is the theme of the ICRS, International Cartilage Repair Society meeting, scheduled for Thursday December 5 and Friday December 6 at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna (Centro di Ricerca, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, Bologna; opening Thursday December 5 at 13.45).
Professor Maurilio Marcacci, Director of the II Orthopaedic Clinic at the Rizzoli, and Professor Christoph Erggelet, Director of the “Center for Biologic Joint Surgery” in Zurich, will chair the scientific meeting, organized by Doctor Elizaveta Kon, an orthopaedic surgeon on Professor Marcacci’s staff responsible for the Rizzoli NABI-Nanobiotechnology Laboratory, specialized in experimental studies of regenerative medicine for the articular cartilage.
Three-hundred participants from Europe, the United States and Asia: the Bologna two-day meeting represents an opportunity for confrontation on present results obtained worldwide with different approaches for reparation of cartilage tissue with stem cells.
“Recent progress in the field of biomaterials and new prospectives in the use of stem cells – explains Prof. Maracci – represent one of the most stimulating fields in Orthopaedics and the Rizzoli Institute is internationally renown for its contribution in this specific field”.
Two sessions of live surgery are scheduled, with surgery directly from the Rizzoli operating theaters to the Institute’s Congress hall where the meeting will be held. During these sessions innovative osteochondral scaffolds (devices that are used as “scaffolds” for stem cells inserted in the cartilage tissue to be repaired) and new techniques with concentrated stems cells extracted from bone marrow will be used.
