Human-induced pluripotent stem cell for regenerative medicine and drug discovery

CIC nanoGUNE Seminars

Speaker

Kiyoshi Ohnuma, Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan

When

2015/03/23
12:00

Place

nanoGUNE seminar room, Tolosa Hiribidea 76, Donostia - San Sebastian

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How can a full-scale movable robot being built using Lego bricks? Stem cell researchers face more difficult problems than building a full-scale robot. Pluripotent stem cells can multiply almost infinitely (self-renewal) and differentiate into all cell types (pluripotency). Moreover, _H_ uman _i_ nduced _P_ luripotent _S_ tem _C_ ells (hiPSCs) can be generated easily, multiply almost infinitely, and can differentiate into various cell types. As a recent result heart tissue that contracted spontaneously was regenerated from stem cells (regenerative medicine) and personalized drugs can be used to treat heart diseases (drug screening). However, many questions must be answered before to achieve the goal of regenerating functional organs. For example, how can large 3D organs (~100 mm) be assembled using small cells (~10 μm)? This issue is more challenging than building a full-scale movable super-robot such as Mazinger Z (18 m height) made of Lego bricks (~10 mm). In this seminar, I will introduce our recent research on hiPSC-based cell patterning and harvesting techniques based on a microfluidic perfusion culture system.