Home > Science Seminar > Spring 2007 Seminar Schedule > Stem Cell Research
The Science Seminar Series: February 6, 2007 7pm
Developing stem cells for cell therapy and drug discovery.
Steven Stice, PhD
Professor and Director of the Regenerative Bioscience Center
GRA Eminent Scholar of Animal Reproduction
ADS Complex, University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Bailey Science Hall AuditoriumTime: 7:00 pm
Abstract
The American Heart Institute estimates that 128 million Americans could be helped today with advances in stem cell therapies. In the US 1.5 million people suffer from Parkinson’s disease and there is no long-term treatment for this disease. Embryonic stem cell based therapies hold great promise for curing and can be used to discover new drugs for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, ALS, SMA and other devastating diseases. However there are two significant and fundamental roadblocks that must be overcome before safe and effective treatments are developed. First, human embryonic stem cells undergo spontaneous differentiation, even when cultured on fibroblast feeder layers. Therefore, producing large quantities of homogenous stem cells is technically difficult if not impossible today. It is essential to obtain scaled up homogenous populations of stem cells because it’s likely that tens of millions of starting stem cells are needed to isolate a subpopulation of specialized cells for transplants. Isolating stem cell populations less susceptible to undesirable differentiation cues (non neuronal) can lead to stable stem cell populations and prevention of spontaneous differentiation. Our goal has been to develop methods of culturing a stable cell line that can be directed homogenously down neural pathways rather than randomly differentiating down lineages that happen to include neural cells. To this end, in 2006 we published the first paper on the extend culture of neural stem cells and the production differentiated neurons from these cells. Thus we have developed the first renewable stem cell population that can be used in developing neural drug discover and toxicity assays. We are actively collaborating with several groups to provide these cells to the research community so that they can be used to develop treatments and possibly cures for many neurological diseases.