Stem Cell Medicine
Transforming lives with stem cell medicine
Based on our fundamental understanding of stem cell and developmental biology, it is now possible to establish human models mimicking aspects of tissue and organ physiology. Stem cell medicine provides a unique and timely opportunity to accelerate the bench-to-clinic pipeline for both drug development, precision medicine, and cellular therapies collectively referred to as regenerative medicine.
Stem cell models, either as cultured in 2D or as 3D organoids, allow us to more accurately model human disease. This has advanced and will continue to advance our understanding of human tissue physiology and disease mechanisms. These models allow us to identify new drugs for specific diseases and test the efficacy of current drugs using patient-derived stem cell models. Moreover, these models have the potential to be implemented in precision medicine to ensure the best possible treatment for the right patient.
Our ability to generate and expand large quantities of healthy cells in the laboratory enables us to conduct more extensive and detailed studies. We study how cells mature into different cell types, such as nerve, skin, and liver cells. In the lab, we are also able to study mechanisms of various diseases in a controlled environment, enhancing our understanding of how diseases develop, affect the systems of the body, and cause functional changes. This research leads to valuable insights into diseases and the specific changes they induce. In the future, these cells can also be used to develop new treatments that replace or repair damaged tissues and organs, as well as to restore functions that have been lost due to disease, damage, or functional changes.
Stem Cell Medicine
Stem cell medicine provides a unique and timely opportunity to accelerate the bench-to-clinic pipeline for both drug development.
The future of stem cell medicine
Stem cells in disease modelling and regenerative medicine provide potential new options for the current treatment gaps due to their unique properties and adaptability. While regenerative medicine hold the potential to deliver new treatments for both inherited and chronic degenerative diseases, stem cell disease modelling will advance drug development and drive personalised medicine.
Disease modelling and drug development | 2-10 years
- Generating patient tissue from their stem cells to improve and develop new treatments
- Drug screening for novel treatments stem cell derived tissues
- Using stem cells to generate human tissue for toxicity screening
Regenerative therapies | 5-15 years
- Delivering stem-cell derived cells into patients
- Bioengineering tissues and devices for replacing organ function
- Stimulating normal repair pathways to improve outcomes
Stem cell gene editing | 5-15 years
- Creating stem cells from other cell types
- Modifying stem cells to create new types of cells
- Editing cell genomics to create cells with novel functions
Our research themes
The processes of development, tissue turnover, repair and disease to understand at the cellular and molecular level how stem/progenitor cells form the many cell types of the body in vivo, how this process can be regulated and how isolated stem cells can be employed to recreate specific cell and tissue types in vitro.
The basis of disease using stem-cell derived human tissue models. The growing cost of drug development pipelines rests with drugs that fail at Clinical trial. Stem cell-based modelling of human tissues provide the opportunity to improve the drug discovery pipeline by enabling accurate early toxicity testing and delivering personalised readouts of drug response. As a result, activities within reSOLVE will change the paradigm of
conventional drug development.
Damaged tissues using stem cell based cellular therapies and engineered tissues. Stem cell-based therapies have the potential to deliver treatments for currently untreatable chronic disease with the stem cell themselves representing the product.
The genome of stem cells to provide new cellular functions. At the intersection of gene therapy and cell therapy, the ability to edit the genome of a stem cell to deliver a novel function or repair an inherited defect has the potential to provide therapies for currently incurable rare disease.
The community for novel stem cell-based products by investigating the ethical, social, regulatory, and economic barriers.