Mechanisms of small RNA regulation in early embryonic development
The promise of embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine is based on their potential to make every cell in the body, a property coined pluripotency. With rapid recent advances in…
Mechanisms Underlying the Diverse Functions of STAT3 in Embryonic Stem Cell Fate Regulation
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are derived from very early stage embryos. ESCs can be maintained in culture indefinitely while retain the ability to make any type of cell in the…
Regulation of Adult Stem Cell Proliferation by RAS and Cell-Permeable Proteins
Our research focuses on developing new tools and models for the next generation of doctors and scientists in all specialties of regenerative medicine. The major obstacles in regenerative medicine are…
A Novel Microenvironment-Mediated Functional Skeletal Muscle from Human Embryonic Stem Cells and their In Vivo Engraftment
Muscle wasting is a serious clinical problem associated with a number of diseases and health conditions, affecting individuals of all ages. Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a form of muscle wasting…
Molecular dissection of adult liver regeneration to guide the generation of hepatocytes from pluripotent stem cells
The liver is a promising target for cell therapy since it supports and functionally integrates transplanted cells. Human liver contains more than 50 billion cells and more than 10% replacement…
Molecular Mechanisms of Trophoblast Stem Cell Specification and Self-Renewal
Prematurity/preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal death in the U.S. and in California. During an average day in California, 149 babies are born preterm. These babies are at…
Derivation and Characterization of Myeloproliferative Disorder Stem Cells from Human ES Cells
Cancer is the leading cause of death for people younger than 85. High cancer mortality rates related to resistance to therapy and malignant progression underscore the need for more sensitive…
Mechanisms of chromatin dynamics at enhancers during ES cell differentiation
The human ES cells are euploid cells that can proliferate without limit and maintain the potential to differentiate into all cell types. Differentiation of human ES cells involves selective activation…
Molecular mechanisms governing hESC and iPS cell self-renewal and pluripotency
A major problem in regenerative medicine today is that stem cells have the ability to cause tumors and in most cases we currently lack methods to make them safe. For…
High throughput modeling of human neurodegenerative diseases in embryonic stem cells
An important class of neurological diseases predominantly affects spinal motor neurons, the neurons that control muscle movement. The most well known of these motor neuronopathies is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS),…
