Human Stem Cell Use: Embryonic Stem Cell
A Phase I/IIa Dose Escalation Safety Study of AST-OPC1 in Patients with Cervical Sensorimotor Complete Spinal Cord Injury
The proposed project is designed to assess the safety and preliminary activity of escalating doses of human embryonic stem cell derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) for the treatment of spinal cord injury. OPCs have two important functions: they produce factors which stimulate the survival and growth of nerve cells after injury, and they mature in […]
Non-invasive live imaging of stem cell signature metabolic states
Stem cells in tissues exhibit unique metabolic states that could distinguish them from other more specialized cells. Using a new type of microscopy we can image the metabolic states of cells in living tissues and, therefore, attempt to identify stem cell populations. Because stem cells can give rise to tumors that are metabolically very different […]
Directed Differentiation of Specialized Endothelial Cells
Vascular endothelial cells (EC) or endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) derived from stem cells could potentially lead to a variety of clinically relevant therapeutic applications, including various strategies for treating heart and vascular diseases. However, because EC exhibit a variety of functionally distinct subphenotypes, it is important to be able to generate the appropriate endothelial type. […]
Biophysical Determinants of Early Embryonic Stem Cell Fate Specification
Regenerative therapies require effective differentiation of stem cells to cell types that are functionally identical to those found in vivo. Many current differentiation protocols merely involve optimization of proteins added to the culture media, but do not consider the microenvironmental context in which cells differentiate during development or tissue repair. When we include the biophysical […]
Metabolically-driven epigenetic changes in iPSC reprogramming
Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from somatic cells through cellular reprogramming offers tremendous potential for therapeutics, the study of disease states, and elucidation of developmental processes. Central to the process of generating a pluripotent cell from a somatic cell is an energy-dependent epigenetic reconfiguration event that must occur to produce iPSCs with characteristics […]
Paracrine and synaptic mechanisms underlying neural stem cell-mediated stroke recovery
Stem cell therapy holds promise for the almost million Americans yearly who suffer a stroke. Preclinical data have shown that human neural stem cells (hNSCs) aid recovery after stroke, resulting in a major effort to advance stem cell therapy to the clinic, and we are currently transitioning our hNSC product to the clinic for stroke […]
Metabolic regulation of cardiac differentiation and maturation
Cells in the body take up nutrients from their environment and metabolize them in a complex set of biochemical reactions to generate energy and replicate. Control of these processes is particularly important for heart cells, which need large amounts of energy to drive blood flow throughout the body. Not surprisingly, the nutritional requirements of heart […]
Assessing the mechanism by which the Bone Morphogenetic Proteins direct stem cell fate
Our goal is to use the mechanisms that generate neuronal networks to create neurons from stem cells, to either replace diseased and damaged tissue or as a source of material to study disease mechanisms. A key focus of such regenerative studies is to restore function to the spinal cord, which is particularly vulnerable to damage. […]
A novel druggable mechanism to safeguard stem cell genome
Safeguarding the genome is essential for cells’ proper functions, and more importantly for safe and efficacious applications involving pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells. However, how pluripotent or somatic stem cells maintain genome integrity during self-renewal, differentiation, and reprogramming is still largely unknown. We recently identified a small molecule drug that exhibits unprecedented abilities […]
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 […]