Project Objective: Tool/Resources/Bottleneck
Novel Tools and Technologies for Translational PET Imaging of Cell-based Therapies
One of the great promises of stem cell research is that doctors will find a way to isolate and modify patient’s stem cells so that they be reinjected into patients to treat their disease. Current examples include islet cell transplantation to treat diabetes, stem cells for treating heart failure, or engineered immune cells for treating […]
A MULTI-MODALITY MOLECULAR IMAGING SYSTEM (MRSPECT) FOR IN VIVO STEM CELL TRACKING
The stem cell research has started making many promising discoveries already. Future clinical trials will require that the location and number of such cells be tracked in live subjects, over long periods of time. Tracking of stem cells after administration is essential for a better understanding of their migrational dynamics that could be used to […]
The Stem Cell Matrix: a map of the molecular pathways that define pluripotent cells
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are being considered for a wide range of research and therapeutic uses. Cell therapy is the most challenging of the potential clinical applications and its success will depend on the ability to guide differentiation of hESC into clinically useful cell types. The ideal cell types would possess three features: the […]
Development of a novel technology for precise, efficient, and safe genetic modification of stem cells
Stem cells are unique among cell types found in the human body: These cells are pluripotent; that is, they can develop into any of the more than 200 cell types in the human body. A major goal of stem cell research is to develop treatments for patients who suffer from devastating and currently incurable conditions […]
AO Wide-Field Microscope
A deeper understanding of the biological mechanisms that govern stem cells requires detailed, real-time image analysis of living cells. Currently, conventional live microscopy techniques are ineffective at imaging features like the nucleus in the center of a cell, principally due to aberrations caused by imaging through cytoplasm, organelles and other molecules inside the cell. Similar […]
TAT Cell-Permeable Protein Delivery of siRNAs for Epigenetic Programming of Human Pluripotent and Adult Stem Cells
The rapid progress of embryonic stem cell, induced-pluripotent cell, and adult stem cell research opens the door to thousands of promising, new medical applications and discoveries. However, one of the major obstacles in translating these basic science discoveries into safe therapies for patients is the risk of acquiring mutations from viral and DNA vectors. Exposure […]
Synthetic Matrices for Stem Cell Growth and Differentiation
There is a critical need for new technologies to facilitate growth and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) using clinically acceptable, animal-free reagents. In particular, most currently used culture conditions are not acceptable for standardized production of clinical grade cell products. We propose to develop novel, well-defined, synthetic extracellular matrices for growth and differentiation […]
Scaleup of Versatile, Fully Automated, Microfluidic Cell Culture System
We are proposing to optimize and scale up a highly advanced (microfluidic) cell culture system into manufacturable form. This system will allow researchers to: Identify stem cell culture and differentiation conditions Identify genes and small molecules effecting stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, and Identify genes and small molecules involving or effecting reprogramming of differentiated cells. […]
Microfluidic Platform for Screening Chemically Defined Conditions that Facilitate Clonal Expansion of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) hold a great potential to treat many devastating injuries and diseases. However, current hPSC cloning still faces challenges in creating animal product-free culture conditions for performing genetic manipulation and induced differentiation of hPSCs for cell-based therapy. In order to obtain the ideal culture conditions for hPSC cloning, microfluidic technology can […]
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. […]