Prof Paolo De Coppi

Paolo-DE-COPPIUCL/NIHR Professor of Paediatric Surgery
Great Ormond Street Hospital Consultant Paediatric Surgeon

Paolo De Coppi is the Professor of Paediatric Surgery and Head of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Section, Developmental Biology & Cancer Programme at the UCL Institute of Child Health. He is also NIHR Professor and Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the UCL Institute of Child Health. Concomitantly he is an Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium (since 2013), Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University, Wiston-Salem, NC, US (since 2009) and Honorary Assistant Professor Paediatric Surgery, University of Padua, Italy (since 2005).

GIFT-Surg focus

Paolo has a special interest in congenital malformation and their treatment using minimally invasive techniques. He has focused his research interests on stem cells and tissue engineering, trying to find new modalities for the treatment of complex congenital anomalies. While working with Dr A. Atala at the Childrens’ Hospital in Boston-US, he had the opportunity of identifying a new source of cells for therapeutic applications showing the possibility of using stem cells from amniotic fluid. This finding generated an international patent, the cover of the January 2007 issue of Nature Biotechnology, and it has opened the development of new ways for the correction of congenital malformations.

More recently, his team has demonstrated that these cells are able to differentiate into various tissues and to replace functional activity in animal models of diseases. He is now focused on developing reliable methods for stem cell isolation, expansion and differentiation at clinical level (GMP-grade). In 2010 he was part of the team, which performed the first successful transplantation of a tissue-engineered trachea on a child at the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Paolo is now working to translate these methods to fetal surgery, as well as providing surgical expertise on the project.

Cells can be washed out from the organs using detergents while maintaining their overall matrix structure
Cells can be washed out from the organs using detergents while maintaining their overall matrix structure
At higher magnification it is possible to appreciate that the acinar structure of the lung is preserved
At higher magnification it is possible to appreciate that the acinar structure of the lung is preserved
At higher magnification it is possible to appreciate that the vessels of the lung which remain patent are preserved
At higher magnification it is possible to appreciate that the vessels of the lung which remain patent are preserved

Above: Sheep lung after decellularization (Maghsoudlou P, et al. Biomaterials. 2013 Sep;34(28):6638-48)

 

 

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