Regenerative Stem Cell Molecular Therapies
Overview - Recent evidence from stem cell transplantation studies strongly suggests that morphogens produced by stem cells can induce repair of injured and diseased tissues. However, the precise mechanisms whereby stem cell-mediated paracrine delivery is capable of altering the normal host environment to elicit a more favorable wound healing response remains poorly defined. Thus, we are seeking to identify the morphogenic factors produced by stem cells and develop novel strategies to directly apply stem cell derived morphogens in a cell-free manner for tissue regeneration applications.
Morphogen expression - Stem cells produce a variety of morphogenic factors that vary over the course of differentiation. We are applying genomic, proteomic and glycomic tools in order to temporally characterize the complex profile of molecules synthesized by stem cells actively undergoing morphogenesis. We anticipate that a more comprehensive understanding of the endogenous patterns of molecule expression by differentiating stem cells will yield new strategies to direct cell phenotype and contribute directly to the development of regenerative stem cell molecular therapies.
Stem cell-derived matrices - We have been developing efficient means of deriving extracellular matrix molecules produced by ESCs undergoing differentiation using a variety of different acellularization techniques. In addition to characterizing the molecular composition of stem cell-derived matrices, we are also examining the resulting bioactivity of the acellular materials in in vitro and in vivo settings. Treatment of injured tissues with ESC-derived factors may significantly alter the local tissue milieu and yield “embryonic-like”, scarless tissue regeneration in adult mammalian species.