GMP-compliant hESC-derived dopaminergic neurons
Here, Agnete presents a GMP-compliant protocol for neuralising hESCs directly from day 0 of differentiation in a scale suitable for clinical production. This approach not only enables us to get highly pure populations of DA progenitor cells (>90%), but it also increases our final yield of transplantable cells >40 times when compared to previous embryoid body protocols starting with the same number of cells. The protocol is published in Cell Stem Cell.
2015-04-30
Dr. Agnete Kirkeby
Lund University, Lund, Sweden
MESSENGER RNA REPROGRAMMING
- PATH TO CLINICALLY RELEVANT IPSCS
This talk will review the development of mRNA reprogramming from its inception, describe the particular challenges entailed, and address the latest advances which have facilitated the implementation of a high-throughput, xeno-free, feeder-free, footprint-free iPSC derivation pipeline based on this exciting technology.
2015-04-30
Dr. Luigi Warren
CEO, Cellular Reprogramming, Inc, USA
Efficient hepatocyte specification, maturation, and organization
Here, Kate presents her work on that show that culture of human ES cells on human recombinant laminin-521 and laminin-111 substrates significantly improve hepatocyte differentiation, maturation, function and stabilization of phenotype compared to Matrigel cultured cells. Laminin cultured cells arrange themselves in lobule like structures, express MRP1 and MRP2 and are capable of biliary efflux and show a significant effect on hepatocyte P450 enzyme metabolic activity. The GMP-ready hepatocyte differentiation protocol is published in Stem Cell Reports.
2015-04-30
Dr. Kate Cameron
University of Edinburgh, UK
Neural stem cells in health and disease
Here, Anna presents how studies of neural stem cells and neurons derived from iPS cells of patients show faithful mimicking of known disease phenotypes in our cellular models of disease, like Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and Down syndrome. She has discovered several novel disease-specific cellular phenotypes in their in vitro models, many of them involved in the accurate performance of the neural progenitors.
2015-04-30
Dr. Anna falk
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
DNA DAMAGE AND LOW-GRADE MOSAICISM IN HESC CULTURES
Claudia presents data around how hESC and somatic cell lines frequently acquire segmental copy number variations in the Megabase-scale, forming a non-clonal or low-grade genetic mosaic. Their data show that hESC grown on laminin-521 show a decreased proneness to acquiring DNA damage during suboptimal culture conditions, such as medium acidification during high culture density. The results have been published in Stem Cell Reports.
2015-04-30
Dr. Claudia Spits
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Clinically compliant hESC-derived RPE cells
hESC lines derived and cultured on recombinant human laminin 521 under fully chemically-defined and animal substance-free conditions. The differentiated RPE cells exhibit native characteristics including morphology, pigmentation, marker expression, monolayer integrity, polarization, and phagocytic activity. The authors are established a large-eyed geographic atrophy model that allowed in vivo imaging of the hESC-RPE and host retina. The protocol for clinical compliant hESC derived RPE cells has been published in Stem Cell Reports.
2014-04-16
Dr. Sonya Stenfelt
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Defined and xeno-free culture of high-quality hESC and iPSC
Laminin-521 allow not only self-renewal, but also cloning, derivation, and even clonal derivation of new hES cell lines under defined and xeno-free conditions. Laminin-521 induce fast migration of the cells and laminin isoform-specific activation of PI3K/Akt pathway through interaction with α6β1 integrin. All the hES and human-induced pluripotent stem cell lines were confirmed to be genetically stable and pluripotent in in vivo and in vitro assays after extensive culturing on the new substrate. The defined and xeno-free long-term hPSC culture protocol has been published in Nature Communications.
2014-04-16
Dr. Sergey Rodin
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Efficient pancreatic islet maintenance and expansion
Biologically relevant laminins enable mouse pancreatic islets in vitro culture: expansion, phenotype maintenance, and glucose-dependent insulin release. When cultured upon the selected combination of islet-specific laminins, pancreatic islets exhibited following effects: (1) robust spreading into flattened adherent clusters with heterocellular organization, (2) islets maintain the functional ability for glucose-dependent insulin release, (3) all the endocrine cell types maintain specific markers expression and ability to proliferate.
2014-04-16
Dr. Anna Domogatskaya
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden