Posts by Harald C. Ott, MD
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Pre-Epicardial Cells Generated from Stem Cells Expected to Improve Engineered Heart Tissue
Harald C. Ott, MD, and Jun Jie Tan, DPhil, of the Center for Regenerative Medicine, and colleagues have devised a straightforward method of generating pre-epicardial cells that should play a key role in creating bioengineered heart tissue to treat patients with heart failure.
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Tracheal Stenosis Following COVID-19
Up to 5% of the patients who underwent prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation during treatment for COVID-19 later presented with post-intubation tracheal stenosis. This article discusses causes, identifiers and treatment of tracheal stenosis.
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Bioengineered Organs on Demand
Mass General researcher Harald C. Ott may have developed a way to save lives and meet the demand for replacement organs and overcome organ rejection
Biography
Dr. Harald C. Ott is a thoracic surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an Associate Professor in Surgery at the Harvard Medical School. He is best known for his work in whole organ regeneration. He discovered and perfected the method of stripping an organ of its own cells and then infusing the remaining scaffold with new progenitor cells (Perfusion Decellularized Matrix: Using Nature’s Platform for Engineering Bioartificial Heart. Nat Med. 2008 Feb; 14(2):213-21.). To date, his technology has been successfully applied to heart, liver, lung, kidney, and pancreas regeneration. This method of reseeding and engraftment with native cells potentially eliminates donor organ shortage and the need for life-long immunosuppression in transplant patients, and thus lays the path for effective solutions for the millions of people in need of organ repair or replacement. Harald’s background is in surgery (M.D.; University Innsbruck in Austria, 2000) and this training has been an asset for his chosen field of scientific research. The privilege to work with patients suffering from end organ failure provides both motivation and inspiration to continue his work in organ regeneration.
