Cell Line Generation: iPS Cell
3D Modeling of Retina using Polymer Scaffolds for Understanding Disease Pathogenesis
Inherited retinal degenerations result in visual loss in patients as early as in their adolescence. Retinitis Pigmentosa includes a group of such degenerations which run in families and can result in legal blindness by 40 years of age. Even though we know by now a number of gene mutations which can cause these disorders, we […]
Role of the NMD RNA Decay Pathway in Maintaining the Stem-Like State
A subset of intellectual disability cases in humans are caused by mutations in an X-linked gene essential for a quality control mechanism called nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD). Patients with mutations in this gene—UPF3B—commonly have not only ID, but also schizophrenia, autism, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Thus, the study of UPF3B and NMD may provide insight into […]
Studying Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia with patient-specific iPS cells
Most heart conditions leading to sudden death or impaired pumping heart functions in the young people (
Common molecular mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases using patient based iPSC neurons
A major medical problem in CA is the growing population of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s (PD) and Huntington’s (HD) disease. These diseases affect millions of people, sometimes during the prime of their lives, and lead to total incapacitation and ultimately death. No treatment blocks the progression of neurodegeneration. We propose to conduct fundamental […]
A new paradigm of lineage-specific reprogramming
Recently, we devised and reported a new regenerative medicine paradigm that entails temporal/transient overexpression of induced pluripotent stem cell based reprogramming factors in skin cells, leading to the rapid generation of “activated” cells, which can then be directed by specific growth factors and small molecules to “relax” back into various defined and homogenous tissue-specific precursor […]
Stem cell models to analyze the role of mutated C9ORF72 in neurodegeneration
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an idiopathic adult-onset degenerative disease characterized by progressive weakness from loss of upper and lower motor neurons. Onset is insidious, progression is essentially linear, and death occurs within 3-5 years in 90% of patients. In the US, 5,000 deaths occur per year and in the world, 100,000. In October, 2011, […]
The HD iPSC Consortium: Repeat Length Dependent Phenotypes for Assay Development
Identifying Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease with Human Neurons Made From Human IPS cells
We propose to discover new drug candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which is common, fatal, and for which no effective disease-modifying drugs are available. Because no effective AD treatment is available or imminent, we propose to discover novel candidates by screening purified human brain cells made from human reprogrammed stem cells (human IPS cells or […]
Direct reprogramming towards vascular progenitors for the treatment of ischemia
Angiogenesis or the generation of new blood vessels is a critical part of the normal healing process. Newly created vessels ensure the delivery of oxygen, nutrients, and specific repair signals to injured tissues. Indeed, even though additional repair mechanisms are required, such as replenishment of tissue-specific cell types, angiogenesis contributes to the healing of a […]
Identification of Novel Therapeutics for Danon Disease Using an iPS Model of the Disease
Autophagy is the cells mechanism for breaking down and recycling proteins. Danon disease is an inherited disorder of autophagy. Patients with this disease have major abnormalities in heart and skeletal muscle and generally die by the time they are in their 20s. Recently we used a new technology to turn skin cells from two patients […]