Stage of Program: Basic or Applied Basic Research (DISC1 and many 1.0 Projects)
The retinoblastoma (RB) gene family in cellular reprogramming
One important aspect of regenerative medicine is the ability to introduce functional stem cells into patients to restore tissue function. This type of therapeutic approach will not be commonly used until several major potential problems have been addressed, including immune rejection and the risk of developing cancer. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise […]
Identification and characterization of human ES-derived DA neuronal subtypes
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder that affects 1 in 100 people over the age of 60, one million people in the US and six million worldwide. Patients show a resting tremor, slowness of movement (bradykinesia), postural instability and rigidity. Parkinson’s disease results primarily from the loss of neurons deep in the middle […]
Molecular Characterization of hESC and hIPSC-Derived Spinal Motor Neurons
One of the main objectives of stem cell biology is to create physiologically relevant cell types that can be used to either facilitate the study of or directly treat human disease. Tremendous progress towards these goals has been made in the area of motor neuron disease and spinal cord injury through the findings that motor […]
Human Cardiovascular Progenitors, their Niches and Control of Self-renewal and Cell Fate
For the millions of Americans who are born with or develop heart disease, stem cell research offers the first hope of reversing or repairing heart muscle damage. Thus, early reports suggesting heart regeneration after transplantation of adult bone marrow-derived stem cells were met with great excitement in both the scientific and lay community. However, although […]
Defining the molecular mechanisms of somatic cell reprogramming
The development of methods to “reprogram” adult cells such as skin cells by simultaneously expressing four specific factors — Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4 — in order to create cells resembling embryonic stem (ES) cells is a major breakthrough in stem cell biology. Our ability to generate these cells, which are known as induced pluripotent […]
Molecular Mechanisms of Reprogramming towards Pluripotency
Stem cell biology and its applications to cell-based therapies, since its inception 30 years ago, has been hindered by the immunological considerations of rejection of non-autologous cells in patients, as well as by ethical concerns. The generation of pluripotent cells from a patient’s own somatic cells has therefore been the holy grail of regenerative medicine. […]
Molecular Characterization and Functional Exploration of Hemogenic Endothelium
Hematopoietic cells are responsible for generating all cell types present in the blood and therefore critical for the provision of oxygen and nutrients to all the tissues in the body. Blood cells are also required for defense against microorganisms and even for the recognition and elimination of tumor cells. Because blood cells have a relatively […]
Multi-modal technology for non-destructive characterization of bioengineered tissues
Stem cell technologies hold great promise for engineering replacement tissues for repairing functional loss from trauma or disease. Such therapies are particularly important for replacing bone and cartilage in the aging population to maintain an active quality of life. However, the application of stem cells to generate individualized implantable grafts suffers from patient-to-patient variability that […]
Technologies to improve in vivo function of transplanted stem cells
Stem cell-based therapy is recognized as a promising therapeutic approach for treating various diseases that are currently intractable. One strategy in regenerative medicine is to transplant stem cells or their differentiated derivatives to regenerate the damaged tissues or halt tissue degeneration. Human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells having the potential to […]
Development of 3D Bioprinting Techniques using Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived Cardiomyocytes for Cardiac Tissue Engineering
Heart, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases are responsible for ~17 million deaths per year globally and this number is predicted to reach 23.3 million by 2030. Cardiovascular diseases impose a staggering annual cost of $300 billion on the U.S. health care system. Heart transplantation is the ultimate solution to end-stage heart failure. However, a major […]