Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine

Researchers Related to Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Stem cells have the ability to differentiate into any cell type. Because of this, they can repair and/or replace diseased or damaged cells, organs and tissue.

Researchers at the Gates Center are using this technology to help grow new cells in patients with Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries and skin diseases. Additionally, they can be “conditionally immortalized” as blood cells. Immortalized Stem Cells are created from Adult Stem Cells.

They have the ability to divide indefinitely, thus providing an inexhaustible supply of cells. They can be frozen until needed. This will make bone marrow transplants available to more people, and can create individual bone marrow stem cell lines. They can also be used blood cancers and tumors. The long term goal is to create universal donor stem cell lines.

For more information on the Center's Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine program, please refer to the list of researchers below.

	Researcher	Description
	Ayers, Reed	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links Dr. Ayers' current research focus includes, reaction synthesis of calcium phosphate ceramics and intermetallics - including reactive structural materials, bone tissue engineering, tissue responses to biomaterials, and bone biomineralization.
	Davies, Stephen	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links The primary focus of my research program is the development of novel therapies for the injured or diseased central nervous system, with a particular emphasis on repairing traumatic spinal cord injuries.
	Ehrhart, Nicole	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links The mission of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Laboratory is to design and conduct high-quality hypothesis driven research to benefit humans and animals with musculoskeletal tumors and trauma. Our current focus is the therapeutic potential of stem cells in bone regeneration following injury from radiation or trauma.
	Freed, Brian	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links The University of Colorado Cord Blood Bank is one of the oldest public banks in the country and has facilitated >400 hematopoietic stem cell transplants in 20 countries.
	Freed, Curt	Stem Cells and Disease & Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Links The goal of my laboratory is to convert human embryonic stem cells to dopamine neurons for implantation into patients with Parkinson's disease.
	Krebs, Melissa	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links Our lab is interested in the development of biopolymer systems that will allow the study of stem cells' interactions with their microenvironment, and which can be used for tissue regeneration. We are investigating the controlled delivery of bioactive factors, the presentation of insoluble signals and the effect of mechanical forces on cell behavior and tissue formation, and the influence that different cell populations have on one another.
	Long, Carlin	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links Our lab is interested in determining the importance of an open artery in cardiac regeneration as a function of how this effects the extent of bone marrow-derived stem cell (BMSC) integration into injured myocardium and cardiac function following BMSC mobilization. An additional interest is determining the factor(s) that are present in the post-infarct heart responsible for BMSC homing as well as the cell-specific source of these substances
	Nguyen, Vu	Stem Cells and Disease Links We are studying graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which develops following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). A subset of T cells, called regulatory T cells (Treg), can inhibit GVHD, but their global and relatively non-selective capacity to suppress immune responses may compromise tumor and microbial immunity. Using cord blood hematopoietic stem cells, we are investigating human Treg development and migration in order to generate subsets of Treg that have the capacity to traffic into specific tissues to reduce local inflammation. With this strategy, suppression of inflammation in GVHD targets, such as the intestine, liver, and skin, would not abrogate systemic host immunity against deleterious antigens in non-affected organs.
	Olwin, Bradley	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links Our lab looks at the regeneration of skeletal muscle by a self-renewing resident stem cell.
	Payne, Karin	Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links The goal of the Regenerative Orthopaedics Laboratory is to develop novel stem cell-based therapies for musculoskeletal tissue engineering. The current focus is on the therapeutic potential of bone marrow stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.
	Refaeli, Yosef	Stem Cells and Cancer Links We have generated matched sets of normal and leukemic hematopoietic stem cells. We are now studying the differences between these two populations with high-throughput screening methods aimed to identify novel therapeutic targets and agents. This is a novel method to understand the differences between blood cancer stem cells and normal blood stem cells. The goal here is to identify novel drug candidates that can specifically target blood cancer stem cells and spare normal blood stem cell populations. Stem Cells and Disease We are developing a universal donor hematopoietic stem cell line for clinical use in conditions that would normally require a bone marrow transplant. Examples of this are cancer, immunodeficiency, autoimmune diseases, acute radiation sickness, among others. This is a program that is focused on the development of a blood stem cell line that can be used for transplantation into humans. The use of a high number of very pure stem cells should also enable us to transplant the cells to any individual who require a transplant, without regard to genetic background and/or matching. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine We are studying the role of MYC in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation. We are developing novel approaches to improve bone marrow stem cell transplantation, red blood cell production in vitro, and potentially extend our approach to other adult somatic stem cell sources. These programs aim to understand the molecular circuitry of stem cells - how they remain in a stem like condition, and how they choose to differentiate to a particular lineage.
	Roop, Dennis	Stem Cells and Cancer Links My research focuses on understanding the role of cancer stem cells in the maintenance and resistance of skin cancer. Stem Cells and Disease We are developing stem cell therapies for inherited skin blistering diseases. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links We are developing stem cell therapies for wound repair.
	Zhang, Qinghong	Stem Cells and Cancer Links My research is focusing on the transcriptional regulation in skin biology, dynamic stemness, and cancer development. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Links We are interested in developing therapeutics for skin diseases and wound healing.

Welcome to the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. We are a Top Ten Medical School in primary care, pediatrics, family medicine and rural medicine, and offer physical therapy and physician assistant programs.