[1][2] His work focuses on the science of regenerative medicine: "a practice that aims to refurbish diseased or damaged tissue using the body's own healthy cells".

[8] As director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Atala leads a team of more than 400 researchers dedicated to developing cell therapies and engineering replacement tissues and organs for more than 40 different areas of the body.

[15] He did his fellowship at the Harvard Medical School–affiliated Boston Children's Hospital from 1990 to 1992, where he trained under world-renowned pediatric urologic surgeons Alan Retik and Hardy Hendren.

[19] Along with Harvard University researchers, and as described in the journal Nature Biotechnology,[20] Atala has announced that stem cells with enormous potential can be harvested from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women.

[23]Atala's work was seized on by opponents of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill[24] (a part of the 100-Hour Plan of the Democratic Party in the 110th United States Congress) as a more moral alternative.

He wrote a letter saying, inter alia, "Some may be interpreting my research as a substitute for the need to pursue other forms of regenerative medicine therapies, such as those involving embryonic stem cells.