Cell Line Generation: Embryonic Stem Cell
Human Stem-Cell Based Development of a Potent Alzheimer’s Drug Candidate
Over 6 million people in the US suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are no drugs that prevent the death of nerve cells in AD, nor has any drug been identified that can stimulate nerve cell replacement in aged human brain. Importantly, even if nerve cells could be replaced, the toxic environment of the AD […]
Clinical Development of a Cell Therapy for Diabetes
We are developing a stem cell-derived replacement cell therapy for insulin-requiring diabetes. Through a process known as directed differentiation, embryonic stem cells are turned into pancreatic cells in the laboratory. The pancreatic cells are loaded into a delivery device, which is essentially a small envelope made with a semi-permeable membrane, not unlike a flat tea […]
Alpha Stem Cell Clinic for the Development of Regenerative Therapies
The proposed alpha clinic will bring together an outstanding team of physician-scientists with substantial clinical trials experience including stem cell and other cellular treatments of blood diseases and others. This team will also draw on our unique regional competitive advantages derived from our history of extensive collaboration with investigators at many nearby first-class research institutions […]
A suite of engineered human pluripotent stem cell lines to facilitate the generation of hematopoietic stem cells
Our goal is to develop tools that address major bottlenecks that have prevented the generation of blood forming stem cells in culture for therapeutic use. To help overcome these bottlenecks, we will generate a suite of human embryonic stem cell reporter lines that can be used to monitor key milestones in blood stem cell development. […]
Development of a Relevant Pre-Clinical Animal Model as a Tool to Evaluate Human Stem Cell-Derived Replacement Therapies for Motor Neuron Injuries and Degenerative Diseases
Motor neurons degenerate and die as a consequence of many conditions, including trauma to the spinal cord and its nerve roots and degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy. Paralysis and in many cases death may result from a loss of motor neurons. No effective treatments are available for these patients. […]
Generation of a functional thymus to induce immune tolerance to stem cell derivatives
Stem cell research offers the promise of replacing missing or damaged tissues in the treatment of disease. Stem-cell-derived transplants still face problems with rejection as in traditional organ transplants. Several drugs can prevent rejection but also suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections and cancer. To avoid rejection without using drugs requires re-educating […]
Restoring vision by sheet transplants of retinal progenitors and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)
There is currently no effective treatment to restore or improve vision for patients suffering from incurable blinding diseases such as dry age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, which need both new photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium. However, a unique method to transplant fetal retinal progenitor sheets together with its supporting retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has […]
Understanding the status of the X chromosomes in human ESCs and preimplantation embryos
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are able to divide indefinitely and under the proper conditions, can essentially become any cell in the human body. They are derived from the developing human embryo and carry great promise for regenerative medicine. However, these cells demonstrate an instability surrounding the state of the X chromosome. Male (XY) cells […]
Retinal progenitor cells for treatment of retinitis pigmentosa
The targeted disease is retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a severe form of blindness that often runs in families, but other times arises spontaneously from genetic errors. This disease is not overly common, yet represents an attainable near term target for stem cell therapy for a number of reasons: 1) RP destroys the light detecting cells of […]
Stem cell based small molecule therapy for Alzheimer’s disease
Over 6 million people in the US suffer from AD. There are no drugs that prevent the death of nerve cells in AD, nor has any drug been identified that can stimulate their replacement. Even if nerve cells could be replaced, the toxic environment of the brain will kill them unless they are protected by […]