The Stem Cell Podcast

Dr. Pierre Vanderhaeghen is a Professor and Principal Investigator at VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research. His lab studies the mechanisms of cortical development and brain evolution. He talks about species-specific neuronal development, human neuron excitability, and playing in a rock cover band!

Dr. Ryan Flynn is a Principal Investigator at Boston Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department at Harvard University. His lab explores the interface between RNA and glycans. He talks about the discovery of glycoRNA and the chemistry of the RNA-glycan connection. He also discusses the effects of glycans on stem cell function and deciding between a career in medicine and basic science.

Dr. Blair Benham-Pyle is an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine. She talks about how multipotent cells in Schmidtea mediterranea enable whole-body regeneration. She also discusses the effects of the mechanical environment on stem cell fate.

Dr. Amander Clark is the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and Founding Director of the Center for Reproductive Science, Health, and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Agnete Kirkeby is a Program Chair of the ISSCR Annual Meeting, Associate Professor at Lund University and the University of Copenhagen, and Group Leader at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology – reNEW. Dr. Malin Parmar is a Program Chair of the ISSCR Annual Meeting, Professor at Lund University, and a New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator. They talk about the upcoming ISSCR 2024 meeting in Hamburg, Germany from July 10-13, 2024. They discuss the meeting's clinical focus, spotlight and plenary sessions, and opportunities for students and postdocs.

Dr. Marissa Scavuzzo is an HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellow at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on enteric glia regulation in the healthy and diseased gut. She talks about how glial cell subtypes affect intestinal motility and her experience receiving NYSCF and HHMI fellowships. She also talks about bringing science to underserved schools in Cleveland.

Dr. Ritu Raman is the d’Arbeloff Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where her lab uses robotics and tissue engineering to treat muscle loss. She talks about light-activated muscle grafts, magnetic microparticles to control forces exerted on cells, and strategies for science communication.

Dr. Shiri Gur-Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Regenerative Medicine at UC San Diego. Her lab studies epithelial stem cells throughout their lifetimes. She talks about lymphatics in the intestinal stem cell niche, 3D imaging techniques, and sharing her science with a wider audience.

Dr. Malin Parmar is a Professor at Lund University and a New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator. Her research aims to understand cell fate specification in the developing brain and in human neural progenitor cells using cell-based models of neuronal differentiation. She talks about using assembloids to model the dopaminergic system, direct reprogramming somatic cells into induced neurons, and developing ESC-derived dopamine progenitor cells to treat Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Olivier Pourquié is the Frank Burr Mallory Professor of Pathology and Professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. His work focuses on the segmentation clock and the development of muscles and vertebrae. He talks about studying somitogenesis in vitro and his work on brown fat development.

Dr. Hwee Goon Tay is an Assistant Professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School and Dr. Beau Fenner is an Ophthalmologist at the Singapore National Eye Centre. Their work focuses on cell therapy for degenerative retinal diseases. They talk about strategies to slow degeneration and potentially restore vision.

Dr. Jose Polo is a Professor of Epigenetics and the Director of the Centre for Epigenetics at the University of Adelaide. He is also a Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Monash University. His lab studies the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms that govern cell identity. He talks about his team's work on cell fate, iBlastoids, and placental models for SARS-CoV-2.

Dr. Stefan Irion is the Chief Scientific Officer of BlueRock Therapeutics and Dr. Viviane Tabar is the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In this special episode, recorded in front of a live audience in New York, they talk about their work on BlueRock's clinical trial for bemdaneprocel — a stem cell-derived investigational cell therapy for Parkinson's disease. They also discuss what's next for cell therapy and diversity in science and in patients.

Dr. Helen Blau is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Blau’s research focuses on the basic molecular mechanisms of stem cells and muscle and their application to aging, regenerative medicine, and disease. Her lab aims to understand and apply biology to improve quality of life, and their current primary focus is on understanding the gerozyme 15-PGDH. She talks about the roles of NSAIDs and CD47 in muscle regeneration. She also discusses growing cultured meat and writing a children's book!

Dr. Roger Foo is the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Professor of Medicine and Head of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. His lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiac biology and disease. He talks about the genetics of heart disease and the roles of circular RNAs.

Dr. Bas Trietsch is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Mimetas, a company working to contribute to groundbreaking therapies with their screenable, physiologically relevant 3D human disease models. He talks about tissue-relevant models for drug discovery, and how organ-on-a-chip technology can help address scalability and reproducibility.

Dr. Thorold Theunissen is an Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology at Washington University in St. Louis investigating the molecular basis of pluripotency, the mechanisms of trophoblast development, and the generation of stem cell-based embryo models.

Dr. Nicolas Rivron is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. His group recreates embryonic development using mammalian stem cells in a dish to better understand the encoded principles of self-organization. He talks about building human blastoid models and using them to study implantation. He also discusses differences in development between mice and humans, trophectoderm stem cells, and an ethical framework for embryo models.

Dr. Laura Andres-Martin is a Research Investigator, Oncology, Dr. Daniel Paul is the Senior VP, Discovery & Platform Development, and Dr. Raeka Aiyar is the VP, Scientific & DEIB Outreach at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF). This episode was recorded live and in-person at the NYSCF Research Institute. The panelists talk about NYSCF's approach to automation, their women's reproductive cancer initiative, and promoting inclusion and belonging in science. They also talk about Founder Susan Solomon's legacy and future plans to break down barriers in stem cell research.

Dr. Nathaniel Huebsch is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. His lab focuses on understanding how mechanical cues originating at cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix contacts influence signaling and fate. They are especially interested in how those cues affect heart development and disease. He talks about cardiac models and cardiomyocyte maturity.

Dr. Thomas Durcan is an Associate Professor and Director of the Early Drug Discovery Unit at the Montreal Neurological Institute. He oversees a team of 40+ research staff and students, committed to applying patient-derived stem cells towards the development of phenotypic discovery assays and 3D neuronal organoid models for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. He talks about modeling sporadic ALS in a dish, partnering with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and promoting open science.