Kevin Docherty fills us in on the research behind the session he’s co-chairing at SfE BES 2015. The session, “Evolving model systems for complex tissues” will be chaired by Kevin and Shareen Forbes on Wednesday 4 November at 09:15.
It is over 18 years since James Thompson and colleagues at the University of Madison published their data on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). These cells are pluripotent and as such have the inherent ability to give rise to any human cell type. It was anticipated that the ability to grow hESC-derived human tissue in culture would provide model systems for drug development, ex vivo toxicity testing, and tissue for cell therapy. One could argue that this is an appropriate time to take stock of where we are with respect to achieving these goals and where the field is heading. In this context The SFE BES Conference in Edinburgh (November 2nd-4th 2015) is holding a timely session entitled: The Applied Physiology Workshop on Evolving Model Systems for Complex Tissues.
The premise at the outset was that hESCs (and iPSCs when they came along in 2007) could be directed to differentiate towards specific tissue lineages by recapitulating events that occurred in the developing embryo. The field got off to a slow start while we waited for the developmental biology to catch up. However by around 2005, or so, we had reliable markers for the three important germ layers (definitive endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm), and we also began to understand the important roles played by different signalling pathways in driving these cells towards, neurons, cardiomyocytes, liver, pancreas and other relevant cell types. We soon had a toolbox for every tissue. In some cases the protocols were fairly simple. Thus, some neuronal cell types could be generated over a relatively short period of time (~10 days) with a few key reagents. It was not surprising therefore that the first clinical trials were for the use of pluripotent cell (PC) – derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in the treatment of age related macular degeneration (AMD). However, the development of cell therapeutics for the major chronic diseases such as liver failure, diabetes and neurodegeneration has proved more challenging. Continue reading “Background: from cells to organs in the lab”
The Endocrine Post 