Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics
In the fall of 2015, the Department of Surgery received a major gift from
the National Rongxiang Xu Foundation to establish the Rongxiang Xu, MD Professorship of Surgery in the
Field of Regenerative Therapeutics at Harvard Medical School, and the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics.
In recognition of his international leadership in the field of regenerative therapeutics and wound healing, Aristidis Veves, MD, DSc (pictured at right), serves as the first Rongxiang Xu, MD, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the BIDMC Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics.
Dr. Veves focuses much of his research, which also receives funding from the NIH and other agencies, on understanding what impairs wound healing in diabetic patients and using that knowledge to develop novel products that can help promote healing in patients with chronic wounds resulting from diabetes, venous ulcers, and many other serious conditions, as well as burns. Dr. Veves is focusing largely on neuropeptides, protein-like molecules that have many functions in the body. He and his collaborators at BIDMC, the Wyss Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and other institutions are working on developing new biomaterials, such as topical dressings, that will deliver neuropeptides and other factors to wounds to help promote healing.
More about Dr. Veves' research
About the Center
The Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics also conducts collaborative bench-to-bedside research with investigators worldwide, and educates physicians and scientists internationally about new therapies and the management of the problems they treat. The center also sponsors an annual lecture by a world-renowned expert.
The center seeks to build strong partnerships, promote collaborations, and solve currently intractable clinical problems. Fostering closer connections between bench and bedside, ensuring the highest quality preclinical research, and accelerating clinical trials of promising technologies.
The center is guided by an Advisory Board and receives input from a Scientific Advisory Board comprised of leaders from within and outside of the Harvard community.
About Dr. Rongxiang Xu
Rongxiang Xu, MD (1958-2015), graduated from the Qingdao Medical College in China. Trained as a surgeon, Dr. Xu witnessed the suffering of burn patients treated with conventional therapy and was determined to develop a more effective, less painful approach. He developed new topical therapies based on botanical drugs that helped to restore the physiological structure and function of the skin, thereby dramatically reducing pain, illness, and death.
Dr. Xu’s significant contributions advanced wound therapy, saved lives, and dramatically improved the quality of life for countless patients around the world.
Over the past three decades, Dr. Xu’s research in tissue repair and regeneration led to multiple U.S. patents and the growth of his successful multi-national company, MEBO International. His scientific achievements have been acknowledged by U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush. The Chinese government honored Dr. Xu for his numerous contributions with a commemorative stamp with his image.
Dr. Xu’s interest in the translation of his work to a broad group of patients was further realized through a longstanding collaboration with Aristidis Veves, MD, DSc, in the Department of Surgery at BIDMC. In recognition of Dr. Veves’s international leadership in the field of regenerative therapeutics and wound healing, he was nominated to serve as the first Rongxiang Xu, MD Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.