Dr. Soto-Gutierrez's research is focused on the development of new technologies for organ replacement using regenerative medicine approaches (bioengineering, cell transplantation and organ engineering) to generating entire replacement organs, Dr. Soto-Gutierrez's laboratory use the structural connective tissue of discarded livers as a scaffold for growing new liver tissue for transplantation and primary liver isolated cells. His laboratory is actively working in liver cell differentiation and understanding hepatic maturation of ES or iPS cells using interactions with liver non-parenchymal liver cells, 3D liver matrix and different molecules. While portions of the studies are carried out in organ culture systems, several ongoing studies are performed in special animal models of liver regeneration to understand hepatic tissue assembling and regeneration using auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation (APOLT). In addition, Dr. Soto-Gutierrez's laboratory is also interested in strategies for liver repopulation and the study of liver regeneration in disease state (e.g. acute or chronic liver failure and liver steatosis). To this end, several lines of collaboration are open with the Center for Innovative Regenerative Therapies (CIRT) and different laboratories in the Department of Pathology and the STI.