Dr. Toshiharu Shinoka, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and a Co-Director of Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering Program at the Heart Center of Nationwide Children’s Hospital located in Columbus, Ohio.

Dr. Shinoka’s research interests are focused on developing the vascular grafts that have the ability to grow and remodel. These grafts are composed of a woven fabric and seeded with autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells. Dr. Shinoka and colleagues were among the first scientists who begun a human clinical trial evaluating vascular grafts in patients with a univentricular physiology. In his lecture, Dr. Shinoka will review the long-term results of patients who underwent implantation of tissue-engineered vascular grafts and discuss the feasibility of tissue-engineered vascular grafts in pediatric cardiovascular surgery.