Human Stem Cells for Discovery and Therapeutic Development 9/5/2023 11:15am
Neuroscience and Brain Disease Center Symposium 9/5/2023 (half day), Tuesday
Keynote speaker: Su-Chun ZHANG, MD PhD
Dr. Su-Chun Zhang is an external advisor of our Neuroscience and Brain Disease Center. He is the Steenbock Professor in Neural and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). He is also Provost Chair Professor of National University of Singapore, and Professor and director of the Signature Program in Neuroscience & Behavioral Disorders at Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore). Dr. Zhang is a pioneer in stem cell therapies for neurological diseases, reporting promising results for autologous stem cell therapy in a monkey Parkinson's disease model in Nature Medicine (2021).
Talk title: Human Stem Cells for Discovery and Therapeutic Development
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can be differentiated to defined neural cell types and tissues, offering a useful model for dissecting cellular and molecular processes during development and under pathological conditions. They thus offer a platform for uncovering events that are relatively specific to humans and identifying drugs for treating some of the debilitating diseases. The hPSC-derived neural cells also provide a source for cell therapy. Following transplantation of neural cell types into animal models of neurological disorders, we found that the human neurons not only project axons in a long distance but also find their targets in the mature brain, thus reconstructing the functional neural circuit. Strikingly, the pathfinding and circuit reconstruction are largely dependent upon the grafted neuronal type, highlighting the therapeutic potential of hPSC-derived neural cells and the necessity for guiding hPSCs to enriched and functionally specialized subtype-specific neural cells. I will also discuss our studies on the safety and efficacy of cell therapy in NHP model of diseases and our pathways to clinical implication.
Time : September 5, 2023 (Tuesday) 11:15 am
Venue: Stanford Hall, 2F, Excellence Building, Shui-Nan Campus