Title: Professor of Medicine
Company: SymbioCellTech, LLC
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Christof Westenfelder, Professor of Medicine at SymbioCellTech, LLC, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in biotechnology research and instruction.
A native of Germany, Dr. Westenfelder initially obtained a Bachelor of Science from Wilhelm College in Stuttgart in 1962 and subsequently earned a Medical Doctor in biochemistry from University Kiel-Luebeck in Schleswig-Holstein in 1968. After serving a year from 1969 to 1970 as an intern with University Hospital in Berlin, he immigrated to the United States and completed a year as an intern with Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He then served a residency and fellowship in nephrology from 1971 to 1975 at the University of Illinois, where he prospered as an assistant professor of medicine from 1975 to 1982 and director of the university’s dialysis center from 1982 to 1983. From 1983 to 1989, Dr. Westenfelder found much success as an associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he later excelled as chief in the section of nephrology from 1989 to 2022.
In 1992, Dr. Westenfelder founded SymbioCellTech, LLC (SCT) in Salt Lake City, a premier biotechnical research facility that has developed stem cell-based technology that achieves euglycemia (glucose control) in Type 1 diabetes and will soon be adapted for Type 2 diabetes. Backed by rigorous National Institutes of Health, Veterans Administration and privately funded research and resultant data, SCT has completed pre-clinical trials and is preparing for Food and Drug Administration submission and approval to begin well-designed, controlled and clinical trials.
Dr. Westenfelder was inspired to get into the biotechnology industry because of its unique ability to conduct research and utilize basic science approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with complex diseases and because he wished to teach in an academic setting. As a career highlight, he cites his research on stem cell-based research that has enabled treatments for acute and chronic kidney disease, as well as curing Type 1 diabetes with which he is making progress.
Dr. Westenfelder’s goal in the coming years is to have completed the Phase One of the clinical trials for the Stem Cell-Enabled Therapy for Type 1 and 2 diabetes, and to have it patented and marketed. He will then focus on other diseases that are utilizing stem-cell derived exosomes, which are nano-particles that can be programmed to do certain things that are needed therapeutically.
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