George J. Christ is Professor of Regenerative Medicine and Translational Science and Head of the Program in Cell, Tissue and Organ Physiology at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He is an Affiliate Faculty in the Molecular Medicine and Molecular Genetics Programs, as well as the Virginia Tech/Wake Forest School for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. He also holds appointments in the Departments of Urology and Physiology and Pharmacology and the Sticht Center for Aging. He is the former Director and founder of the Institute for Smooth Muscle Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr Christ is an internationally recognized expert in muscle physiology. He is the past Chairman of the Division of Systems and Integrative Pharmacology of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) and past President of the North Carolina Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Division for Integrative Systems, Translational and Clinical Pharmacology of ASPET. He is on the editorial board of five journals and has authored more than 200 scientific publications. Dr Christ has served on both national and international committees related to his expertise, and has also served on NIH study sections in the NIDDK, NICHD, NCRR and NHLBI. He has chaired working groups for both the NIH and the World Health Organization. Dr Christ is a co-inventor on more than 24 patents (national and international), which are either issued or pending, related to gene therapy for the treatment of human smooth muscle disorders and tissue engineering technologies. He is a co-founder and directing member of Ion Channel Innovations, LLC, a development stage biotechnology company pioneering the use of gene therapy for the treatment of human smooth muscle disorders. In addition, he is a co-founder and board member of Creative Bioreactor Design, Inc., another early stage biotechnology company in Karl-Erik Andersson, MD, PhD, is Professor of Regenerative Medicine and Urology at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He also holds appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Molecular Medicine, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has Swedish Specialist Degrees in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, and a PhD in Pharmacology, from the University of Lund, Sweden. From 1978 to 2006 he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Lund, and from 1993 to 2000 he was Vice Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Lund. Dr Andersson has received several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Urodynamics and Female Urology. Dr Andersson is a member of many international societies including the American Urological Association, the European Association of Urology and the International Society for Sexual Medicine. He has served on both national and international committees related to his expertise in basic and clinical physiology and pharmacology and has also served on NIH study sections in the NIDDK. He has chaired working groups for the International Consultation of Urogenital Diseases, supported by the World Health Organization. He also serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Urology, European Urology, and Neurourology and Urodynamics, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Urotoday International Journal. Dr Andersson has authored more than 800 articles in peer-reviewed international journals. His current research interests include clinical and basic physiology and pharmacology of the urogenital tract and regenerative medicine.
