NorBioBergen wants to change the future of regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine is the field of medicine where researchers use stem cells, usually taken from the patient’s bone marrow, to grow new bone or tissue.

For many patients, this treatment, is the best way to cure "incurable" injuries. However, these treatments are often very expensive and do not always work.

Doctors are not yet sure why the treatment works for some patients but not for others. The reasons may be linked to the quality of the stem cells, the biomaterial (also called a scaffold) used to support the cells or conditions in the patient's body where the graft is placed.

Solving challenges and reducing costs  

NorBioBergen aims to address these challenges:

"We believe regenerative medicine is the future. Our goal is to create the next generation of treatments by combining stem cell biology, smart biomaterials and better understanding of the patient's biological microenvironment", says professor Kamal Mustafa, leader of the Tissue Engineering Group and the newly proposed center. 

The proposed center is organized into four main research areas:

1. Understanding the microenvironment
   Study what happens at the site where new tissue is formed, including how the immune system interacts with biomaterials.
2. Developing smart biomaterials
   Use this knowledge to create biomaterials that can respond to the body and support healing more effectively.
3. Using donor stem cells
   Move from using a patient’s own stem cells to safely using donor (allogeneic) stem cells. This approach could reduce costs, be less invasive for patients, and possibly improve treatment results. As part of this work, NorBioBergen plans to establish a national stem cell biobank in Bergen.
4. Improving biofabrication with AI
   Use artificial intelligence to design and build better and more precise tissue structures.

NorBioBergen: A multidisciplinary vision

Kamal knows that this project is highly ambitious, but according to him, not out of reach.

The research group has already done clinical trials using stem cells in regenerative treatments. They are also involved in European research projects, including work on developing new biomaterials.

The planned centre includes strong international partners such as the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, King’s College London in the UK, Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Germany, and the University of Oslo.

Kamals research group “The Tissue Engineering Group” is already recognized as one of the leading groups worldwide in regenerative medicine.

"With NorBioBergen we want to bring our projects togethers under one umbrella and make it a leader in the regenerative medicine of the future", says Kamal.