יוליה מרגרת פולק

Julia Margaret Polak (1939- ), professor of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London, England, where she established a research centre to develop cells and tissues for transplantation into humans. Polak was born in Argentina. She graduated in pathology from the University of Buenos Aires after which she moved to London.

In 1995, as Professor of Endocrine Pathology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (now Imperial College London) she was found to be suffering from one of the conditions she was researching, life-threatening pulmonary hypertension. Her life was saved by a heart and lung transplant and as a result of the success of this operation she decided to change her specialization to tissue engineering. The Centre which she founded made huge advances in tissue engineering research which made transplant surgery much safer. She was for many years editor of the journal "Tissue Engineering" as well as a member of the UK Stem Cell Bank Clinical and User Liaison Committee and an advisor to the British Science and Parliament Committees. She is recognized as one of the most influential researchers in her field. Her work was recognized by the Society for Endocrinology, the International Academy of Pathology and the Association of Clinical Pathologists. She was named in Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Honours List 2003 for her services to medicine.