2006
Eighth Annual Beckman Scholars Symposium
Stem Cell Research Panel Presenter
| Meri
Firpo, Ph.D. Human Embryonic Stem Cells for Biology and Therapy |
| My
lab is studying two questions related to stem cell biology. First,
what is required to keep a stem cell a stem cell, while allowing it
to proliferate? Second, what signals regulate the steps of stem cells
take after they become committed to differentiate? Finally, we are
trying to provide novel embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines and differentiated
cells for human transplantation therapies. One project aims to derive
novel hESC lines for therapeutic purposes. All of the currently available
hESC lines were created in culture with reagents obtained from other
species. This poses a danger of introducing pathogens from other species
into human cells, and possibly transmitting them through transplantation.
We are deriving hESC under defined conditions, using controlled procedures.
These new lines may be submitted to the FDA for consideration for
human therapies. Another project aims to derive hESC lines with genetic
defects that will allow us to study the development of diseases in
the laboratory that previously could only be studied in animals or
patients. A third project explores the regulation of differentiation
of hESC into mature cells of several tissues. We have constructed
plasmid expression vectors containing reporter genes under the control
of both tissue-specific and ubiquitously expressed promoters. Ultimately,
development of methods of genetic alteration will allow us to regulate
differentiation, isolate populations that may be suitable for transplantation
therapies, and to follow the engraftment of hESC-derived tissues.
|
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Meri
Firpo is an Assistant Professor in the Stem Cell Institute
and the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, where
she works on human embryonic stem cell biology, and transplantation
therapies for diabetes. She received her Ph.D. from the Cornell
University Medical College Graduate School of Medical Sciences after
completing a research project in the Developmental Hematopoiesis
Laboratory at the Sloan Kettering Institute. Her research at the
Sloan Kettering Institute was focused on adult bone marrow stem
cells. She then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Jewish
Institute for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, Colorado,
where she completed a project on generating hematopoietic stem cells
from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in culture. After returning
to the Bay Area, Dr. Firpo did a second postdoctoral fellowship
at the DNAX Research Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology
in Palo Alto, California, where she studied the development of the
human hematopoietic system and human models of leukemia. |