Therapeutic/Technology: Technology
Mechanisms of chromatin dynamics at enhancers during ES cell differentiation
The human ES cells are euploid cells that can proliferate without limit and maintain the potential to differentiate into all cell types. Differentiation of human ES cells involves selective activation or silencing of genes, a process that involves not only combinatorial interactions between the cis-regulatory sequences and DNA binding transcription factors, but also post-translational histone […]
Stem Cells in Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the most deadly cancer worldwide and accounts for more deaths than prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer combined. Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. The current 5-year survival rate for all stages of NSCLC is only 15%. Although early stage lung cancer has […]
Molecular mechanisms governing hESC and iPS cell self-renewal and pluripotency
A major problem in regenerative medicine today is that stem cells have the ability to cause tumors and in most cases we currently lack methods to make them safe. For example, two of the most promising stem cells for regenerative medicine, human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), both readily cause […]
High throughput modeling of human neurodegenerative diseases in embryonic stem cells
An important class of neurological diseases predominantly affects spinal motor neurons, the neurons that control muscle movement. The most well known of these motor neuronopathies is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease for the famous Yankee first baseman who died of the disease. The first symptoms of ALS are usually […]
Induction of cardiogenesis in pluripotent cells via chromatin remodeling factors
Heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the civilized world, and as populations age, this trend will increase dramatically. Currently the only way to treat failing hearts is with expensive and relatively ineffective drugs, or by heart transplantation. Ideally, we would like to be able to regenerate sick or dead heart tissue. The […]
Derivation of Parkinson’s Disease Coded-Stem Cells (PD-SCs)
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, severely debilitating approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately there is currently no cure […]
Generation of clinical grade human iPS cells
The therapeutic use of stem cells depends on the availability of pluripotent cells that are not limited by technical, ethical or immunological considerations. The goal of this proposal is to develop and bank safe and well-characterized patient-specific pluripotent stem cell lines that can be used to study and potentially ameliorate human diseases. Several groups, including […]
Derivation and comparative analysis of human pluripotent ESCs, iPSCs and SSCs: Convergence to an embryonic phenotype
This is an unprecedented time in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Today, we have cell lines and tools that did not exist just a few years ago. Indeed, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were derived from pre-implantation embryos just 10 years ago; more recently in the past year, cells with extensive similarities to ESCs […]
New Technology for the Derivation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines for Clinical Use
Since their discovery almost ten years ago, there has been steady progress towards the application of human embryonic stem (ES) cells in medicine. Now, the field is on the threshold of a new era. Recent results from several laboratories show that human skin cells can be converted to cells resembling ES cells through simple genetic […]
Derivation and analysis of pluripotent stem cell lines with inherited TGF-b mediated disorders from donated IVF embryos and reprogrammed adult skin fibroblasts
The field of regenerative medicine revolves around the capacity of a subset of cells, called stem cells, to become the mature tissues of the adult human body. By studying stem cells, we hope to develop methods and reagents for treating disease. For instance, we hope to develop methods for making stem cells become cardiovascular cells […]