Human Stem Cell Use: Adult or Tissue Stem Cell
Derivation and comparative analysis of human pluripotent ESCs, iPSCs and SSCs: Convergence to an embryonic phenotype
This is an unprecedented time in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Today, we have cell lines and tools that did not exist just a few years ago. Indeed, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were derived from pre-implantation embryos just 10 years ago; more recently in the past year, cells with extensive similarities to ESCs […]
An in vitro and in vivo comparison among three different human hepatic stem cell populations.
Because there is still considerable morbidity and mortality associated with the process of transplantation, and because more than a thousand people die each year while on the liver transplantation list, it is evident that improved and safer liver transplantation would be valuable, as would approaches that provide for an increased number of transplantations in a […]
Human stem cell derived oligodendrocytes for treatment of stroke and MS
Strokes that affect the nerves cells, i.e., “gray matter”, consistently receive the most attention. However, the kind of strokes that affecting the “wiring” of the brain, i.e., “white matter”, cause nearly as much disability. The most severe disability is caused when the stroke is in the wiring (axons) that connect the brain and spinal cord; […]
Immunology of neural stem cell fate and function
One of the most difficult yet ultimately rewarding goals in stem cell research is to repair damaged neural systems with newly generated neurons. Our work examining neuronal integration and survival in the postnatal and adult brain shows that incoming neurons are uniquely and exquisitely sensitive to the immune response and inflammation that is always present […]
New Chemokine-Derived Therapeutics Targeting Stem Cell Migration
This proposal describes a sharply-focused, timely, and rigorous effort to develop new therapies for the treatment of injuries of the Central Nervous System (CNS). The underlying hypothesis for this proposal is that chemokines and their receptors (particularly those involved in inflammatory cascades) actually play important roles in mediating the directed migration of human neural stem […]
The Immunological Niche: Effect of immunosuppressant drugs on stem cell proliferation, gene expression, and differentiation in a model of spinal cord injury.
Our understanding of the effect of immunosuppressive agents on stem cell proliferation and differentiation in the central nervous system is limited. Indeed, even the necessity for long-term immunosuppression to promote the survival of stem cells grafted into the “immunoprivileged” central nervous system (CNS) is unknown. Grafting multipotent stem cells into the injured CNS often results […]
Role of the microenvironment in human iPS and NSC fate and tumorigenesis
Multipotent Neural Stem Cells (NSC) can be derived from adult central nervous system (CNS) tissue, embryonic stem cells (ESC), or iPSC and provide a partially committed cell population that has not exhibited evidence of tumorigenesis after long term CNS transplantation. Transplantation of NSC from these different sources has been shown by multiple investigators in different […]
GENE-MODIFIED HEMATOPOIETIC STEM/PROGENITOR CELL BASED THERAPY FOR HIV DISEASE
Stem Cell Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell disease (SCD), which results from an inherited mutation in the hemoglobin gene that causes red blood cells to “sickle” under conditions of low oxygen, occurs with a frequency of 1/500 African-Americans, and is also common in Hispanic-Americans, who comprise up to 5% of SCD patients in California. The median survival based on 1991 […]
HPSC based therapy for HIV disease using RNAi to CCR5.
RNA interference is a naturally occurring means to block the function of genes in our body. We propose that RNA interference can be used to block HIV-1 infection and its reproduction within the body. When RNA interference is introduced into a stem cell, its blocking activity will be present throughout the lifetime of the stem […]