HT chemical manipulation of foetal and adult stem cells - selection transfection and scaffold identification

我们将研究的细胞，所谓的骨髓间充质干细胞，是非常特殊的，因为它们有可能形成各种组织类型，如软骨、骨骼、肌肉、肌腱、韧带和脂肪。由于这个原因，干细胞目前是疾病治疗和修复医学中最令人兴奋和最有前途的领域之一，在未来，这将使基于干细胞的疗法得以发展，以治疗或治愈疾病。鉴于人口老龄化这一事实，开发利用干细胞形成骨骼或替换或修复患病或受损骨骼的策略是一项主要的临床和社会经济需求。然而，使这种方法取得成功的关键问题是，开发方法来纯化干细胞，为组织再生提供足够的细胞，以及开发工具来控制细胞并将其转化为所需的特定细胞。还需要建立3D支架，以使干细胞生长形成选定的组织。这个研究项目提供了一个独特的机会来识别选择的人群和人群亚群，调节分化，并为3D骨骼重建和骨形成提供适当的支架。

The cells we will study, so-called Mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow, are very special as they have the potential to form a variety of tissue types such as cartilage, bone, muscle, tendon, ligament and fat. For this reason stem cells are currently one of the most exciting and promising areas for disease treatment and reparative medicine and in the future this will allow stem cell-based therapies to be developed to treat or cure diseases. Given the fact that we have an ageing population, the development of strategies to exploit stem cells to allow bone formation or the replacement or restoration of diseased or worn-out bone is a major clinical and socio-economic need. However crucial issues to allow this approach to be successful are the development of methods to allow the purification of stem cells to provide sufficient cells for tissue regeneration, and the development of tools to allow the cells to be controlled and converted into the specific cells desired. There is also a need to allow 3D scaffolds to be built to allow stem cell growth to form selected tissues. This programme of research offers a unique opportunity to identify select populations and population subsets, modulate differentiation and provide appropriate scaffolds for 3D skeletal reconstruction and bone formation.