Ep. 177: “Molecular Mechanisms of Differentiation” Featuring Dr. Ludovic Vallier

Guest:

Dr. Ludovic Vallier is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Director of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Centre hiPSC core facility. His lab studies the basic mechanisms controlling the differentiation of pluripotent cells into endoderm progenitors from which the pancreas, lung, gut and liver originate.

Featured Products and Resources:

• Technical Resource: Pluripotent Stem Cell Quality Control
• mTeSR™ Plus

The Stem Cell Science Round Up

iPSC-Derived MSC Trial for Graft-versus-Host Disease – A phase 1, open-label clinical trial showed that iPSC-derived mesenchymal stromal cells were well tolerated in patients with steroid-resistant acute graft-versus-host disease.

Optimizing Drugs using Patient Cells – Scientists used hiPSC-cardiomyocytes from patients with a cardiac rhythm disorder to chemically refine a drug used to treat the disease.

Intestinal Organoids Mimic Human Gut – A new and improved method has been developed to generate physiologically relevant organoids by using a scaffold to guide the self-organization of intestinal stem cells into functional epithelium.

Making Induced Trophoblast Stem Cells – Researchers identified induced trophoblast cells during the reprogramming of human somatic cells. They could be cultivated, expanded, and potentially used to make placenta cells.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Ludovic Vallier