Immunogenicity test platform - in vitro and in vivo

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Regenerative medicine is a branch of medicine that aims to replace damaged or diseased tissue, thereby treating and potentially curing illnesses that are currently untreatable. Two different regenerative medicine approaches are currently being investigated: the first is to stimulate the body's own cells to repair the tissue; the second is to transplant new cells into the body. This research proposal focuses on the second approach, and in particular on the therapeutic potential of pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells (or PSCs for short) are "master cells" capable of becoming any cell or tissue. They are also able to self-renew, meaning that they have the ability to produce endless copies of themselves. PSCs come in two types - embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). ESCs come from very early preimplantation embryos, whereas iPSCs are made by forcing adult cells back into a pluripotent state by using fairly recently developed technology known as cell reprogramming. Just like ESCs, iPSCs can expand indefinitely and can be used to make any tissue.Although there has been a huge amount of progress in making different types of human tissue from ESCs and iPSCs there are still lots of unanswered questions. In particular it is not known if cell and tissue products derived from ESCs and iPSCs will be rejected by the patient's immune system, in the same way that solid organs (like kidney and liver) are rejected if the recipient and donor are not "well matched". Our research aims to help address that question. Through a combination of laboratory experiments and animal (mouse) studies we will determine whether or not two cell products (ESC derived nerve cells and iPSC-derived liver cells) are capable of activating the human immune system. We have chosen these particular cell products as both are about to be tested in clinical trials involving patients with Parkinson's disease and liver failure.We believe that this study is important. As well as providing information on two specific clinical products - our project aims to establish a generic protocol for testing future cellular therapies and in doing so has the potential to significantly advance the field of regenerative cellular therapy.