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Regenerative Medicine Lecture Archive
Organoid-Based Approaches to Investigate Human Neurodevelopment
Lecture Summary:
Human brain development is choreographed by multiple cell types interacting across space and time. In our lab we work primarily with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids and human tissues to better understand the molecular drivers that guide neural stem cell fate decisions during early development. This includes the contributions of both external and internal cues that influence differentiation trajectories. In this talk, I will highlight examples of how our group is utilizing 3D organoid models to understand neurodevelopmental principles, with a particular emphasis on glial biology and neuron-glial interactions. Additionally, I will discuss our efforts to engineer new and increasingly sophisticated organoid models that will open novel opportunities to investigate human brain development and function.
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Sloan received undergraduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from the University of Miami, FL. He then obtained his MD and PhD (in Neuroscience) from Stanford University, where he investigated human glial development and the generation of organoid models to study these cells and their interactions. After finishing these degrees, he started his lab at Emory University, where he is currently an Assistant Professor investigating neural cell fate commitment and engineering next generation stem cell-based platforms to better understand human neurodevelopmental principles.
Presented by the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Center for Science and Math Success, the Regenerative Medicine Lectures are funded through a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant in collaboration with the UC Davis Stem Cell Program.
Using Stem Cells to Study Bipolar Disorder
Lecture Summary:
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and progressive psychiatric illness characterized by mood oscillations, with episodes of mania and depression. The impact of BD on patients can be devastating, with up to 15% of patients committing suicide. This disorder is associated with the presence of other psychiatric and medical conditions, and patients have a high risk of drug abuse, metabolic and endocrine disorders, and vascular disease. Current knowledge of the causes and mechanisms underlying BD is still modest. With no clear biological markers available, early diagnosis is a great challenge to clinicians without previous knowledge of the illness progression. Moreover, despite evidence-based recommendations against the practice, using multiple drugs to treat BD is still common, reflecting the gap between research and clinical practice. A major challenge in BD is the development of effective drugs with low toxicity for the patients. Dr. Marchetto’s lab uses cell reprogramming technology, stem cells, and neuronal derivatives from BD patients to study the causes and pathways involved in BD. This strategy may lead to the development of new therapies and drugs for BD.
Speaker Biography:
Maria Carolina (Carol) Marchetto is an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at UC San Diego and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Salk Institute. Dr. Marchetto earned a BSc in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Marchetto moved to San Diego for her postdoctoral research in stem cells and neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Fred Gage at the Salk Institute. Prior to her appointment at UC San Diego, Dr. Marchetto was a Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute where she led projects that studied neuronal development using human and nonhuman primate stem cells. Her current work focuses on using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to study the cellular behavior of human neurons in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism and Bipolar Disorder. Dr. Marchetto’s work is also focused on human evolution in the context of human brain expansion and neuronal development. She is a BRAINS Program Fellow, and her work has received funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation.
Cell and Gene Therapy- Overview From Early Research to Successful Cures
Dr. Gerhard Bauer will be presenting "Cell and Gene Therapy - An Overview From Early Research To Successful Cures." Dr. Bauer is a Professor of Cell Therapy and Director of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Facility at the University of California, Davis.
Lecture Summary:
The field of Cell and Gene Therapy had its early start in the 1980s, when first attempts were made to genetically engineer cells to cure inherited diseases, such as ADA SCID, an innate immunodeficiency that leaves children without an immune system, and also infectious diseases, such as HIV. After more than three decades of research and development, both in the laboratory and in clinical applications, cell and gene therapies have become accepted cures for previously incurable diseases, such as blood cancers. This lecture will describe the journey from the very beginnings of this field to the latest applications of cell and gene therapies, eliciting reliable cancer cures. This lecture will be presented by a researcher who has been in this field from its very beginnings and has shaped clinical cell and gene therapy product manufacturing to a point that allows commercialization of these products.
Speaker Biography:
Gerhard Bauer was born in Austria and attended college and medical school in Vienna. He moved to the US in the late 1980s to run the HIV research laboratory at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. A few years later he accepted a job at the Johns Hopkins University and started the development of stem cell gene therapy for HIV. In 1995 he moved to Los Angeles to accept a position at the University of Southern California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where he developed clinical grade stem cell gene therapy. He performed the product manufacturing for clinical trials of stem cell gene therapy for the "Bubble Boy Disease" (ADA deficiency) and stem cell gene therapy for HIV, including the first child in the world treated with stem cell gene therapy for HIV. In 2002 he was recruited to Washington University in St. Louis to build and direct a new GMP facility and center for cellular and gene therapy. In 2006 he was recruited back to California, to UC Davis, to be part of the new Stem Cell Program. Here he designed and has been directing a new GMP facility. As one of the best in the United States, this facility manufactures life-saving cell and gene therapy products for many patients nationwide.
RNA, No Longer the Humble Cousin of DNA
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Dr. Gene Yeo, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Francisco discussed his research on developing new genomics technologies to evaluate RNA biology and develop RNA therapeutics for human diseases.
Every cell in the body contains RNA molecules that are essential for the cell’s survival. These RNA molecules are either processed into functional RNA effectors or translated into proteins that are workhorses in cells. Dr. Yeo’s lab studies how RNA is processed by one of the largest classes of proteins in cells, RNA binding proteins. These RNA binding proteins are essential to ensure the proper functioning of many different types of cells, including stem cells during development and neurons during aging. Defects in these proteins can lead to a diversity of diseases, including cancer and neurological diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Understanding fundamental questions about the functions of RNA binding proteins can lead to predictions about how abnormal RNA binding proteins cause disease.
Video of this lecture will be available soon – please check back
Flame of Hope: A Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Dr. Julie B. Sneddon, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell & Tissue Biology, Diabetes Center and, Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco discussed her stem cell research with the potential to revolutionize the treatment of diabetes.
This year, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, which was a triumph of science and medicine. Insulin treatment meant that type 1 diabetes, a disease that had been universally fatal for millennia, was no longer a death sentence. While lifesaving, insulin therapy still does not prevent the debilitating complications, including organ damage and premature mortality, that result from chronic blood sugar instability. Thus, better forms of insulin replacement are desperately needed. Dr. Sneddon highlighted exhilarating progress in stem cell research that has the potential to revolutionize treatment by overcoming some of the most significant challenges currently facing cell replacement therapy for patients with diabetes. This work represents a tangible path towards the holy grail of diabetes treatment: the restoration of blood sugar control without the need for injecting insulin.
Video not available
The Secret Lives of Stem Cells: Lessons from the Humble Fruit Fly
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Dr. Lucy O’Brien, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford Medical School, will detail her current research using the adult fruit fly to model the dynamics of organ cell populations over time.
Our organs contain multitudes of cells: Mature cells that execute organ function, stem cells that generate new cells, immature cells that are differentiating, and spent cells that will soon be lost. Dr. O’Brien will discuss the demographics and dynamics of these cell populations––their sizes, compositions, and spatial distributions over time--how these demographics shift as organs adapt to new environmental demands, and what happens to cellular demographics when organs become damaged or diseased.
Making Heart Muscle Cells from Stem Cells
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Dr. Deborah Lieu, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of California, Davis, will address current research on treating heart disease using stem cells.
Heart disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The successful derivation of heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, from human pluripotent stem cells presents a new regenerative medicine strategy for treating heart disease patients. However, not all cardiomyocytes are the same in the heart! Dr. Lieu will discuss the issues, progresses, and challenges involved with making the right type of cardiomyocytes for the right job in the heart.
View Heart Muscle Cells Lecture
Stem Cells and Autism: From Brain Development to Therapy
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Dr. Konstantinos Zarbalis, Associate Professor, University of California, Davis, will address current research on autism spectrum disorders and the use of stem cell therapies.
Autism spectrum disorders are one of the great health care challenges of our time. Over recent decades, autism prevalence has continuously risen in the U.S. with currently one out of 59 children being diagnosed with a disorder on the spectrum. Both the very diverse presentation and complex developmental course these conditions can take pose major hurdles in understanding their causes and devising therapies to combat them. Dr. Zarbalis will present data that illustrate the role that neural stem cells of the developing brain play in promoting autism spectrum disorders and how this insight may help early diagnosis and prevention. He will also discuss the current use of stem cell therapies in clinical trials.
From Tooth to Guts: Mechanisms of Epithelial Renewal and Regeneration
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Dr. Ophir Klein, Professor and Chief, Divisions of Genetics and Craniofacial Anomalies, University of California, San Francisco, will address current research on stem cell regeneration mechanisms in mammals.
A central challenge facing medicine today is the development of strategies for organ regeneration and repair, and an important next step for regenerative medicine is to understand the mechanisms by which mammals naturally use stem cells to renew and heal tissues. Dr. Klein will present data focusing on stem cells in teeth and the gastrointestinal tract as two examples of organs that undergo constant renewal. He will discuss studies of the continuously growing rodent incisor, a model that allows for powerful integration of investigations into how stem cells function, evolve, and coordinate behaviors across tissues. He will also discuss recent work from his lab examining the response of gastrointestinal epithelial stem cells to injury.
Innovations in Tissue Regeneration
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Dr. Kevin Healy, Professor, Bioengineering and Materials Science & Engineering Departments at UC, Berkeley, will discuss current research on stem cell regeneration including applications addressing ischemia,
Highly regulated signals in the stem cell microenvironment have been implicated in modulating stem cell differentiation, maturation, and ultimately tissue function. The Healy Lab has used the “design for optimal functionality” process to develop semisynthetic microenvironments called extracellular matrix hydrogels. These hydrogels mimic the microenvironments of specific tissue types in order to instruct cell responses. This presentation will address the progress his team has made in developing these hydrogels to coordinate tissue regeneration or survival of transplanted stem cells.control of diabetes, and muscle regeneration.
Stem Cell Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Dr. Dustin Wakeman, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a Senior Research Scientist at RxGen, Inc., will address current research on stem cell usage in the treatment of Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
A major challenge for the clinical application of stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease is large-scale manufacturing and preservation of neurons that can be prepared for surgery. To address this obstacle, midbrain dopamine neurons were derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells production lots for biochemical and transplantation studies.These neurons retained high viability, demonstrated appropriate neuronal characteristics, and significantly reversed functional behavioral deficits when transplanted into a rat model of Parkinson’s disease. These findings demonstrate a simple and efficacious surgical intervention to deliver preserved iPSC-derived neurons for brain disorders and support translational development of pluripotent cell-based therapies in neurodegenerative disease.
A New Perspective on Stem Cells in the Liver
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Dr. Roel Nusse is a professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is a member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford and the Stanford Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine. His talk titled “A New Perspective on Stem Cells in the Liver” will address current research on stem cell behavior in the liver.
The growth, development and integrity of animal tissues, with a focus on stem cells, is the core interest of research done in the lab of Dr. Roel Nusse. Wnt signaling is widely implicated in stem cell control, as a mechanism to regulate the number of stem cells in tissues. Using various cell labeling and lineage tracing methods, this work has described novel populations of stem cells in various tissues, including in the liver. In that tissue, they found that hepatocytes that reside in the pericentral domain of the liver demonstrate stem cell behavior and characterized these unique cells in various ways.
Scar Wars
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Dr. Michael T. Longaker, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Surgery Stanford School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Institiute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, will address current advances in the treatment of wound healing and scar formation.
Dermal fibroblasts represent a heterogeneous population of cells with diverse features. Lineage tracing and transplantation assays demonstrate that a single fibroblast lineage is responsible for the bulk of connective tissue deposition during embryonic development, cutaneous wound healing, radiation fibrosis, and cancer stroma formation. Lineage-specific cell ablation leads to diminished connective tissue deposition in wounds and reduces melanoma growth. Flow cytometry is used to identify a surface marker that allows for isolation of this lineage. Small molecule- based inhibition of CD26/DPP4 enzymatic activity during wound healing results in diminished cutaneous scarring.