Engineering human pluripotent stem cells for improved transplantation of neural progenitor cells
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Biological Sciences
Abstract
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Technical Summary
This application is a UK-Canada exchange project relating to regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is defined as the branch of medicine that develops methods to regrow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues. The purpose of the project is to provide new skills to researchers, including ECRs, technicians and newly independent investigators, and to build links between UK and Canada based scientists for continued or future collaboration. The exchange will support the work being undertaken on the project "Engineering human pluripotent stem cells for improved transplantation of neural progenitor cells".
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Tilo Kunath (Principal Investigator) |
| Title | Edinburgh Progenitor Cell Bank |
| Description | The Edinburgh Progenitor Cell Bank (EPB) is a repository of lineage-committed progenitor cells differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). The mission of the EPB is to provide high-quality cryopreserved human cells to researchers in academia and industry to address basic science questions and for pre-clinical studies, such as drug-testing. A major aim of the EPB is to provide human cell models that can replace and reduce the use of animals for experimentation. |
| Type Of Material | Cell line |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are differentiated along a particular lineage, such as midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons, and then cryopreserved in a progenitor state. These "partially" differentiated frozen cells are then distributed to academia or industry lab. Researchers can then thaw the progenitor cells, complete the final stages of the differentiation protocol, and then conduct their experiments. To date we have distributed the progenitors to labs in Galway, Cambridge, London, and Denver USA. |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/regeneration-repair/research/edinburgh-progenitor-cell-bank |
| Title | Landing pad NAS2 and RC17 cell lines |
| Description | The induced pluripotent stem cell line, NAS2, and the human embryonic stem cell line RC17 were targetted with a "landing pad" construct into the AAVS1 locus. This makes the cell lines compatible with targeting constructs to integrate any gene of interest into the AAVS1 locus at a single copy. |
| Type Of Material | Cell line |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This has contributed to the PhD of Andrew Chai, and the cell lines are currently part of a manuscript to be submitted by the host lab of Dr Michael Garton at the University of Toronto. The current title and authorship are: FAST-STEM: A human pluripotent stem cell landing-pad system for rapid design-build-test-learn development of human cell-based therapeutic devices Aaron H. Rosenstein, Ting Yin, Maria Nguyen, Rangarajan Sambathkumar, Xinyaun Zhao, Rasha Al-attar, Navroop K. Dhaliwal, Fumao Sun, Abolfazl Dadvar, Brandon M. Murareanu ,Andrew Chai, Danielle Serra, Tania Devina, Tilo Kunath, Julien Muffat, Cristina Nostro, Penney Gilbert, Yun Li, Michael A. Laflamme, Shinichiro Ogawa, Stephanie Protze, Michael Garto |
| Description | Borders Parkinson's UK lab visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | On Monday 21st October 2024 a group of 11 Parkinson's patients and partners from the Scottish Borders Parkinson's UK group visited the Centre for Regenerative Medicine. I gave them a tour of the facilities, and update on the on-going research and discuss the launch of the Edinburgh Progenitor Cell Bank. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Co-organiser of 17th INTR conference in Singapore 28th-30th October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | I was a co-organiser 17th International Symposium on Neural Transplantation & Repair (INTR), in conjunction with 34th Annual Symposium of the Network for European CNS Transplantation and Restoration (NECTAR) in Singapore on Oct 28-30, 2024. I promoted the Edinburgh Progenitor Cell Bank while at the conference, and have established new collaborations with Alfred Sun and Su-Chun Zhang. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://intr2024.sg/ |
| Description | Edinburgh Research Interest Group ERIG meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | About 28 people, most with Parkinson's disease, attended an ERIG event on 2nd December 2023 at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine hosted by myself and David Melton. I presented the latest Parkinson's research as presented at a recent conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.edinburghparkinsons.org/progress-at-the-recent-nectar-network-for-european-cns-transplan... |