Program Type: Discovery
Development of an hES Cell-Based Assay System for Hepatocyte Differentiation Studies and Predictive Toxicology Drug Screening
Drug-induced liver toxicity, including that from FDA-approved drugs, is the leading cause of liver failure in the US. One of the biggest road blocks to testing drug-induced liver toxicity prior to clinical studies or release of the drug into the market is the absence of a good model of human drug metabolism in the liver. […]
Directed Evolution of Novel AAV Variants for Enhanced Gene Targeting in Pluripotent Human Stem Cells and Investigation of Dopaminergic Neuron Differentiation
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have considerable potential as sources of differentiated cells for numerous biomedical applications. The ability to introduce targeted changes into the DNA of these cells – a process known as gene targeting – would have very broad implications. For example, mutations could readily be introduced […]
Medical School Loan Repayment Program
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 the limited number of pre-existing stem cells and the inability to regulate their proliferation. Our aim is to identify the mechanisms that regulate adult stem […]
Defining the Isoform-Specific Effects of Apolipoprotein E on the Development of iPS Cells into Functional Neurons in Vitro and in Vivo
GOALS We propose to determine the effects of different forms of apoE on the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into functional neurons. In Aim 1, iPS cells will be generated from skin cells of adult knock-in (KI) mice expressing different forms of human apoE and in humans with different apoE genotypes. In Aim […]
Mechanisms Underlying the Responses of Normal and Cancer Stem Cells to Environmental and Therapeutic Insults
Adult stem cells play an essential role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Environmental and therapeutic insults leading to DNA damage dramatically impact stem cell functions and can lead to organ failure or cancer development. Yet little is known about the mechanisms by which adult stem cells respond to such insults by repairing their damaged […]
Laying the groundwork for building a tooth: analysis of dental epithelial stem cells
To fix a broken car, the mechanic either repairs or replaces the defective part. Similarly, one of the most promising approaches physicians foresee for treating human disease and ameliorating the aging process is regenerative medicine. A major aim of this field is to restore function by repairing or replacing damaged organs. Scientists envision a day […]
Building Cardiac Tissue from Stem Cells and Natural Matrices
Congestive heart failure afflicts 4.8 million people, with 400,000 new cases each year. Myocardial infarction (MI), also known as a “heart attack”, leads to a loss of cardiac tissue and impairment of left ventricular function. Because the heart does not contain a significant number of multiplying stem, precursor, or reserve cells, it is unable to […]
Mechanisms in Choroid Plexus Epithelial Development
Buried deep inside the brain are cells known as choroid plexus epithelial (CPe) cells. Although not as famous as other cells in the nervous system, CPe cells perform a large number of important jobs that keep the brain and spinal cord healthy. They produce the fluid (known as cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF) that bathes the […]
The roles of non-coding RNAs in the self-renewal and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells
There are thousands of cell types in the animal body, many of which can be derived from embryonic stem cells (ES cells), a pluripotent cell type that thrive in cell culture condition. ES cells differentiate into various cell type in a tissue culture dish in response to different growth factor/cytokine treatment, which can be transplanted […]
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 technology, it is becoming relative straightforward to make embryonic stem cell-like lines from adult tissues. In the near future, the generation of these lines will […]