The Stem Cell Podcast

Guest: Dr. Boyang Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University. His lab uses advanced biofabrication techniques to build human micro-tissue models for predictive drug discovery and to construct functional macro-tissues for tissue regeneration in patients. He talks about building microfluidic devices for biological applications and using machine learning to study o...

Guests: In this special episode, Daylon and Arun chat with Drs. Jason Goldsmith and Brenda Raud, the hosts of The Immunology Podcast . Recorded in-person and led by Dr. Nicole Quinn from STEMCELL Technologies , the four hosts discuss the impact that podcasting has had on their careers and how it can make science and scientists more accessible. They also talk about the future of science communicati...

Guest: Dr. Clive Svendsen is the Executive Director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai. His lab uses stem cells to develop models and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. He talks about using stem cells to model spinal muscular atrophy and the blood-brain barrier , and his cell-gene therapy trial for ALS . Featured Products and Resources: Keep current with the latest neur...

Guest: Dr. Shuibing Chen is the Kilts Family Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her lab uses hiPSCs and ESCs for disease modeling and drug screening, with a focus on diabetes and infectious diseases such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2 . She talks about her recent genome-wide association study in a dish , the role of philanthropic funding in stem cell research, and the role of industry partner...

Guest: Dr. Paola Arlotta is the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. She is interested in understanding the molecular laws that govern the birth, differentiation, and assembly of the human brain’s cerebral cortex.  She talks about using organoids to study the genetics of autism . She also discusses single-cell sequencing of brain organoids and how to...

Guest: Dr. Jacob Hanna is an Associate Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and investigates cellular reprogramming and embryogenesis. This episode features a discussion on the challenges of growing embryo models in a roller culture system and the feasibility of making human gametes. Dr. Hanna also talks about launching the startup, Renewal Bio , the ethical discussions surrounding stem...

Guest: Dr. Stefan Irion is the Senior Vice President of Research at BlueRock Therapeutics , a leading engineered cell therapy company with a mission to develop regenerative medicines for intractable diseases. He talks about the company’s Parkinson’s disease trial and the challenges of genetically manipulating stem cells. He also discusses his journey from physician to scientist and his...

Guest: Dr. Jun Wu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern . The Wu lab uses interspecies chimeras to study fundamental biology: conserved and divergent developmental programs, determination of body and organ size, species barriers, and cancer resistance. They are also working to develop new applications for regenerative medicine. He talks about developmental compatibility...

Guest: Dr. Edward Grow is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Southwestern . His lab studies reproductive biology, specifically the development of the egg and subsequently the fertilized embryo. He talks about regulating totipotency in ESCs , retroviral reactivation , and ex vivo culturing of follicles and oocytes. Featured Products and Resources: Keep Current with the Latest in ESC...

Guest: Dr. Prisca Liberali is a Senior Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research and an Assistant Professor at the University of Basel. Her research aims to understand the collective properties of organoid systems and their patterns, including how these systems allow systematic perturbation by established methods for modulating gene expression. She studies self-organ...

Guests: Drs. Tenneille Ludwig, Peter Andrews, and Madeline Lancaster are members of the ISSCR Standards Initiative for Pluripotent Stem Cell Research . They discuss the need for basic and preclinical standards to ensure rigor and reproducibility in stem cell research. They also talk about standards for pluripotency and model systems, and the initiative’s international focus. Featured Product...

Guest: Dr. Jackie Damen is a currently a Principal Scientist in Scientific Support for Hematology at STEMCELL Technologies , and was previously the Director of Contract Assay Services. She talks about the company’s culture and growth, and how in her role, she teaches scientists and helps them conduct their experiments. She also discusses systems for drug screening and discovery, opportunitie...

Guest: Dr. Marian Hettiaratchi is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Campus at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on affinity-based biomaterials to promote tissue and bone repair. She talks about the delivery vehicles for these biomaterials, and her recent work on heparin-mediated delivery of BMP-2 to promote bone regeneration . Featured Products and Resources: Keep current with the...

Guest: Dr. Lydia Finley is an Assistant Member of the Cell Biology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The Finley lab investigates how cellular metabolic pathways regulate cell fate decisions in stem cells and cancer cells. She talks about the metabolic profiles and needs of different cell types, her lab’s discovery of an alternate TCA cycle, and how track and field led her to...

In June 2022, we attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in San Francisco. We spoke with delegates to get their impressions of the meeting. They discussed the most memorable research presented and shared their thoughts on the challenges facing the stem cell field. Featured Products and Resources: Which organoid are you? Take the quiz! If you need help trans...

In June 2022, we attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in San Francisco, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the final of four special episodes from the meeting. Featured Products and Resources: Explore on-demand webinars on your favorite topics in stem cell research. Subscribe to our newsletter! Never miss...

In June 2022, we attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in San Francisco, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the third of four special episodes from the meeting. Featured Products and Resources: The Stem Cell Research Standards Task Force is a half-day meeting on Sunday, June 19 that will explore the develop...

In June 2022, we attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in San Francisco, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the second of four special episodes from the meeting. Featured Products and Resources: Access free, self-paced virtual training courses from STEMCELL Technologies. Subscribe to our newsletter! Never m...

In June 2022, we attended the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in San Francisco, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the first of four special episodes from the meeting. Featured Products and Resources: View STEMCELL’s Virtual Conference Exhibition Subscribe to our newsletter! Never miss updates about new epis...

Guest: Dr. Michael Levin is the Director of the Allen Discovery Center and a Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University. He is a cognitive biologist who utilizes model systems such as Xenopus to answer fundamental questions in developmental biology. He talks about regenerating frog legs, using bioelectricity to direct development, and the potential applications of xenobots. Featured Pr...

Guest: Dr. Steven Stice is the DW Brooks Distinguished Professor and Director of the Regenerative Bioscience Center at the University of Georgia, and the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of ArunA Biomedical. He talks about his early work cloning rabbits and reprogramming blastomeres. He also discusses using exosomes to treat neurological diseases, helping trainees move into industry, and pr...

Guest: Dr. Amritha Jaishankar is the Executive Director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) . She is a scientist by training who has devoted her career to developing cures for debilitating and life-threatening conditions, and to advancing this field, through various roles in federal, university, and industry settings. She talks about the history of the MSCRF, its programs to promote th...

Guest: Dr. Ophir Klein is the inaugural Executive Director of Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and the David and Meredith Kaplan Distinguished Chair in Children’s Health. He discusses his work on intestinal epithelium regeneration, which he will present at the “Tissue Fibrosis and Repair: Mechanism, Human Disease, and Therapies” Keystone Symposium taking place from June 12-16 th in Keyst...

Guest: Dr. David Hay is the Chair of Tissue Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, where his group is defining novel ways to produce liver tissue from PSCs. They use in vitro derived tissue to better model human liver physiology and to develop supportive cell based therapies for disease. Dr. Hay also founded Stimuliver, a company that is developing a disruptive liver implant to treat critical...

Guest: Dr. Agnete Kirkeby is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and a Group Leader at Lund University. The Kirkeby group studies the factors involved in human neural subtype specification in order to enable production of specific neurons for understanding and treating neurological diseases. They apply advanced human stem cells models to understand how hundreds of human neuronal...