Charite - Experimental Surgery

Igor M. Sauer documents the scientific work of his group Experimental Surgery at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Igor Maximilian Sauer is a transplant surgeon at the Department of Surgery, Charité Campus Mitte | Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (head: Prof. J. Pratschke). Beside his clinical work he is directing research in the field of Experimental Surgery and Regenerative Medicine. His research group has focused on cell-based therapies and extracorporeal liver support devices for more than a decade. He developed and improved extracorporeal liver support systems based on detoxification techniques and primary human hepatocytes, tracking technology for transplanted hepatocytes as well as procedures for decellularization and recellularization of liver tissue. His unit has extensive experience in liver cell culture techniques and provides expertise in large-scale human hepatocyte isolation and bioreactor culture. Igor M. Sauer has a special interest in artificial organs and is a patentee in the field. He is author of more than 90 publications in international peer reviewed journals and book chapters in the field of artificial organs, cell culture, liver support devices and transplantation. Prof. Sauer is governor of the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO), head of the Working Group Liver Support of the ESAO. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Department of Surgery under the direction of J. Pratschke, MD. Prior to this he was a general surgery resident at the Clinic for Visceral and Transplantation Surgery at the Hanover Medical School (former Director: R. Pichlmayr, MD). He began researching in his chosen field under EM Bücherl, MD, with the development of an implantable total artificial heart. Igor Sauer is a graduate of the Charité Medical School.