Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Twenty years ago, a seminal discovery by researchers at UW-Madison introduced stem cells to the world. Since then, this new tool has transformed science and opened new doors for translational research. Stem cells are undifferentiated “master cells” capable of transforming into any of the body’s cell types. Waisman Center researchers have been at the forefront …
To mark the 20th anniversary of the stem cell discovery at UW-Madison, the Wisconsin State Journal featured a series of stories on stem cell research, highlighting the work of Waisman Center investigators David Gamm, Anita Bhattacharyya, Su-Chun Zhang, affiliate Randall Ashton, as well as Waisman Biomanufacturing. Researchers at the Waisman Center use stem cells— undifferentiated …
Transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived neurons into chick embryos is an established preliminary assay to evaluate engraftment potential. Yet, with recent advances in deriving diverse human neuronal subtypes, optimizing and standardizing such transplantation methodology for specific subtypes at their correlated anatomical sites is still required.
A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reflects on the history of stem cells and its future direction. Two decades after the first stem cell breakthrough, the promising biological discovery is beginning to take steps toward clinical trials. Waisman Center investigator David Gamm, who researches stem cell therapies for diseases of the eye, reflects on …
In a study published today, Waisman Center investigators Su-Chun Zhang, Albee Messing and colleagues point to new understandings of the broad range of effects that result from the GFAP mutation impacting astrocytes — important supporting cells which comprise 20 to 40 percent of all cells in the brain. Cells donated by patients with Alexander disease …
Waisman Center investigator David Gamm, MD, PhD, and affiliate Krishanu Saha, PhD, are part of a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin- Madison who were recently granted a major award from the National Institute of Health’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium (SCGE). This award will support research focused on developing quality control methods …
In 1998, UW–Madison developmental biologist James Thomson introduced the world to the first laboratory-derived human embryonic stem cells. Twenty years later, UW–Madison remains at the forefront of stem cell research. The Waisman Center at UW-Madison is a hub of stem cell research, especially in the fields of human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegerative disorders. You …
Human induced-pluripotent stem cells are a promising resource for propagation of myogenic progenitors. Our group recently reported a unique protocol for the derivation of myogenic progenitors directly (without genetic modification) from human pluripotent cells using free-floating spherical culture.
Generation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Unaffected Neonatal Skin Cells – We have generated and characterized iPSC clones from three unaffected, neonatal individuals using non-integrating episomal reprogramming plasmids expressing OCT4, SOX2, LIN28, KLF4, and c-Myc.
Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural organoids provide unprecedented potential to recapitulate human brain and spinal cord tissues in vitro. However, organoid morphogenesis relies upon cell-intrinsic self-assembly of biomimetic tissue structures in the absence of normal developmental constraints and morphogen signaling centers.
