Therapeutic/Technology: Exploring stem cell mechanisms


Metabolic regulation of cardiac differentiation and maturation

Cells in the body take up nutrients from their environment and metabolize them in a complex set of biochemical reactions to generate energy and replicate. Control of these processes is particularly important for heart cells, which need large amounts of energy to drive blood flow throughout the body. Not surprisingly, the nutritional requirements of heart […]

A novel druggable mechanism to safeguard stem cell genome

Safeguarding the genome is essential for cells’ proper functions, and more importantly for safe and efficacious applications involving pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells. However, how pluripotent or somatic stem cells maintain genome integrity during self-renewal, differentiation, and reprogramming is still largely unknown. We recently identified a small molecule drug that exhibits unprecedented abilities […]

Generation of a functional thymus to induce immune tolerance to stem cell derivatives

Stem cell research offers the promise of replacing missing or damaged tissues in the treatment of disease. Stem-cell-derived transplants still face problems with rejection as in traditional organ transplants. Several drugs can prevent rejection but also suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections and cancer. To avoid rejection without using drugs requires re-educating […]

Molecular basis of plasma membrane characteristics reflecting stem cell fate potential

Stem cells generate mature, functional cells after proteins on the cell surface interact with cues from the environment encountered during development or after transplantation. Thus, these cell surface proteins are critical for directing transplanted stem cells to form appropriate cells to treat injury or disease. A key modification regulating cell surface proteins is glycosylation, which […]

Defining links between chromatin state and developmental competence

This proposal aims to define fundamental mechanisms that underlie the production of human pancreas and liver cells. The proposed research seeks to advance the development of stem cell-based therapies for diabetes and chronic liver disease. Diabetes is characterized by insulin deficiency due to destruction and/or malfunction of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Diabetic patients […]

Medical School Loan Repayment Program

Because the regenerative capacity of adult heart is limited, any substantial cell loss as a result of a heart attack is mostly irreversible and may lead to progressive heart failure. Human pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated to heart cells, but their properties when transplanted into an injured heart remain unresolved. We propose to perform […]

Medical School Loan Repayment Program

Many fetuses with congenital blood stem cell disorders such as sickle cell disease or thalassemia are prenatally diagnosed early enough in pregnancy to be treated with stem cell transplantation. The main benefit to treating these diseases before birth is that the immature fetal immune system may accept transplanted cells without needing to use immunosuppressant drugs […]

Medical School Loan Repayment Program

Despite therapeutic advances, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in California. Regenerative therapies that restore normal function after a heart attack would have an enormous societal and financial impact. Although very promising, regenerative cardiac cell therapy faces a number of challenges and technological hurdles. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) allow […]

Enhancing hair cell regeneration in mouse and human inner ear

Hearing loss (HL) is a permanent sensory disorder affecting over 278 million people worldwide. In the US and California, 20% of individuals suffer from this sensory deficit. Those affected range from newborns (2 per 1000), to children aged 3-17 (5 per 1000), to adults including the elderly (~33% in aged 65-74 and ~50% >85 years […]

Human endothelial reprogramming for hematopoietic stem cell therapy.

The current roadblocks to hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapies include the rarity of matched donors for bone marrow transplant, engraftment failures, common shortages of donated blood, and the inability to expand HSCs ex vivo in large numbers. These major obstacles would cease to exist if an extensive, bankable, inexhaustible, and patient-matched supply of blood were […]