Rett Syndrome and induced Pluripotent Stem cells goes “Green”
June 17, 2009
Stem cell researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children have now devised a method, reported in the scientific journal Nature Methods, that will facilitate the generation of induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells. I have previously blogged about the promise of iPS cells (see related articles). iPS cells are cells which have been reprogrammed from a differentiated somatic cell (such as your skin cells) to a pluripotent stem cell (like an embryonic stem cell, only that you don’t need to use embryos!). The generation of iPS cells is inherently very rare which occurs at a frequency of about 0.01% meaning you can generate about one iPS cell line out of hundred thousand cells. Out of which, many lines fail to satisfy the different rigorous tests necessary to be given the prestigious name of “iPS cell”.
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The Birth of Cancer Stem Cells
February 20, 2009
A little over a decade ago, something happened here at SickKids: the field of cancer stem cell biology was born. In 1994, John Dick’s group published a seminal study in the journal Nature, announcing the identification of human acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-initiating cells.
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Science Funding in Hard Economic Times
January 29, 2009
Many aspects of scientific research are inaccessible to the general public; nothing more so than how basic science is funded. For this reason, government funding to basic scientific granting agencies is often an unattractive target for spending in hard economic times.
Returning home…
December 20, 2008
My blog this month is about returning home. I am an ex-pat Australian working in stem cell research at SickKids. I left Australia on Australia Day 2004 as a fresh-faced PhD graduate. Nearly 5 years have passed and I have returned this month for a brief trip in the capacity of both a mature researcher and as an aunty to see my kids for Christmas.
I won’t lie; the past few months have been interesting for me as I struggled to put all of my emotions in perspective. I have been full of joy and happiness, a little anxious and fearful, but proud as well, which has made for some very interesting internal dialogues! It took a little time to realise these feelings were not about my return home after so long away, but rather they are indelibly linked to life as a researcher, regardless of the stage at which we find ourselves in our careers.
I am at the point in my career where I am almost ready to strike out for independence, and I came home to look at research opportunities. My search started with giving a seminar to my home institution; that is to those responsible for giving me my foundations in science. This seminar was important to me as much for showcasing the stem cell research we are doing at SickKids with respect to childhood cancer as it was for showing that living abroad and working in an environment that fosters collaborative efforts, as SickKids does, has been a great developmental opportunity. I was able to illustrate that as a result of the information we have gained from the cancer stem cell research we are doing we could offer insight into why current therapies are not working, the mechanisms of responsible for patient relapse at distant metastatic sites, and how we might treat them in the future.
I was fortunate to give this seminar to a second children’s research institute and talk to more Australian scientists about the stem cell research being done at SickKids and to some other scientists interested in finding out what we are doing at SickKids. The response to my research in the role of cancer stem cells in children’s cancer was incredibly positive for both the application of stem cell research theories to children’s cancer, particularly a cancer where distant metastases are common and responsible for a majority of deaths, as well as the collaborative efforts of the team (the ward, pathology, surgery, clinic, and research) at SickKids as model system.
Stem cell research is an interesting research area in so many ways, but none more interesting for me at this stage in my career as I look for the right place to settle and establish myself as a stem cell researcher. SickKids have put me in the right place with respect to being competitive in attracting career offers and research funds to continue my efforts in trying to understand the role of cancer stem cells in childhood cancer.
I am happy about my experience of returning home to tell my very early career mentors about how I have developed as a scientist since I left them, and have made some really tough career and life decisions in this too short a trip. I’d like to continue this blog to tell you all about the process a young scientist goes through to make the decision to become an independent researcher and to tell you about the process of looking for the right job.
Talk to you next month and Merry Christmas!
Luck
December 16, 2008
I had a very lucky week; I was hit by a car.
Last Tuesday night I was walking along a busy downtown street. As I crossed the intersection, a car sped around the corner, struck me, and threw me to the ground. Just a moment before I was hit, I saw the headlights of the car only inches from my knee. Amazingly, the Hollywood clichés about time slowing down seem true. As I was hit, many thoughts went through my mind as if the impact was occurring in slow motion. I thought, “but the light isn’t even yellow, why is the car here in the crosswalk”? Then, “boy, it’s lucky this isn’t a big truck with those steel cages on the front”. I even thought, “damn, this is going to hurt”. But, part of my mind was still a stem cell biologist as I thought, “I hope I don’t snap my spine, because stem cell transplants are not ready yet."
The Power of Hope
December 2, 2008
I want to discuss the power of hope. I recently read an article in a national newspaper about a family who was traveling to China to receive stem cell therapy to restore their child’s vision. This child had been born blind as a result of a developmental defect that results in the optic nerve failing to develop normally. As a research scientist who studies brain stem cells and cancer stem cells, I was surprised to learn that hospitals in China were offering stem cell treatments to patients. The stem cells that generate the eye and optic nerve are very similar to the brain stem cells that I study. In this case, the first reports to suggest that this therapy may work came just within the last few years in studies on rats and mice.
“A whole new vista”
November 21, 2008
SickKids stem cell researchers were featured in today’s Toronto Star
Last November, two teams of scientists announced they had found a way to coax human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells, which are capable of becoming any tissue.
Scientists crowed after hearing the news, likening the discovery to the Wright brothers’ first flight.
Not only did it sidestep the ethical concerns dogging the field – the technique does not use human embryos or controversial cloning techniques – the finding brought scientists closer than ever to the long-awaited promise of personalized organ and tissue transplantation.
That excitement has continued unabated. Hundreds of scientists around the world have now adopted the "reprogramming" technique. Many hope to use the cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to learn about – and learn to cure – diseases.
And Toronto, already a hub of stem-cell activity, is leading the way.
For the full article, please click here
The future of genomics
November 14, 2008
This week Craig Venter visited SickKids and gave the keynote address at the annual SickKids research symposium. Whereas the majority of scientists toil in relative obscurity, Dr. Venter is one of the rare scientists whose work and ideas are so highly cited in the popular media that if someone doesn’t recognize his name, they almost surely have heard about his work. In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics and used the tools and techniques that the company developed to successfully sequence and publish the human genome in February 2001. He and his team at Celera also sequenced the fruit fly, mouse and rat genomes.
As Dr. Venter detailed during his hour long lecture, the sequencing of the human genome was hardly the pinnacle of his work, but rather a springboard to rapidly expand further research. Dr. Venter now leads the Craig J. Venter Institute (http://www.jcvi.org), a multidisciplinary genomic-focused organization with more than 400 scientists and staff.
The work that the Venter Institute is doing, some of which is done through collaborations with genomics researchers here at SickKids, is providing an unprecedented level of understanding of how individual organisms and individual people differ at the molecular level. This is laying the groundwork for what many regard as the future of health care, personalized medicine, where an individual’s preventative measures or treatment options are tailored to their unique risk factors and biology.
Not all of their current work is human-centric though, one of the more fascinating projects that caught my attention was their interest in cataloguing the diversity of life in the oceans. To do this, Dr. Venter’s group covered over 32 000 nautical miles of ocean, obtaining water samples which were later used for harvesting and sequencing of microbial DNA. This work led to the discovery of over 6 million new genes, a biological resource that we haven’t even begun to utilize. Over the years, we will be moving rapidly towards understanding what each of these genes do, how they affect the metabolism of an organism, and how they can be utilized to improve our environment by optimizing biological processes such as chemical degradation or energy production.
The rapidly expanding field of genomics impacts on every aspect of the biological and medical sciences, and indeed impacts society as a whole. Similar to stem cell research, as our technical capabilities increase, there must be a coincidental increase in the level of discussion of how we as a society would like to pursue these technologies, regulate their use, and ultimately utilize their potential for the betterment of human health and the natural environment.
How to Reboot the Human Body: from Maclean’s Magazine
November 13, 2008
Ontario IPS Cell Facility highlighted in Maclean’s Magazine
The Ontario IPS Cell Facility at SickKids was profiled in the October 30 issue of Maclean’s magazine. Connecting for Kids blogger Aaron Cheung, SickKids Cheif of Research, Dr. Janet Rossant and other stem cell staff at SickKids were featured in the article.
UN bioethics committee to reconsider global cloning ban
October 28, 2008
The SickKids Research Institute Chief of Research, Dr Janet Rossant, was quoted today in the Toronto Star, as the UN bioethics committee is opening up a debate about using cloning technology for research, but upholding the ban on cloning technology used for reproduction.
From the Toronto Star
Experts set to revisit global cloning ban; Scientists on UN’s bioethics committee to consider differentiating between research, reproductive use
Stuart Laidlaw, Toronto StarMention clones, and scenes from movies like The Boys from Brazil, Jurassic Park and Star Wars come to mind.
And none of them are good - whether they’re little Hitler clones bred to build a "Fourth Reich," run-amok dinosaur clones, or disposable storm-trooper clones fighting to control the galaxy.
It’s an image the United Nations international bioethics committee hopes to begin dispelling this week when it meets in Paris to discuss allowing some human cloning in hopes of advancing stem cell research - a change scientists would welcome.
"From an ethical point of view it is possible to say reproductive cloning should be banned, but leave open the use of cloning technologies in research," says Dr. Janet Rossant, chief of research at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and deputy scientific director of the Stem Cell Network.
Scientists hope stem cells might one day help fight degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or ALS, and to alleviate the effects of stroke.
Rett Syndrome and induced Pluripotent Stem cells goes “Green”
June 17, 2009 by Aaron Cheung
Stem cell researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children have now devised a method, reported in the scientific journal Nature Methods, that will facilitate the generation of induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells. I have previously blogged about the promise of iPS cells (see related articles). iPS cells are cells which have been reprogrammed from a differentiated somatic cell (such as your skin cells) to a pluripotent stem cell (like an embryonic stem cell, only that you don’t need to use embryos!). The generation of iPS cells is inherently very rare which occurs at a frequency of about 0.01% meaning you can generate about one iPS cell line out of hundred thousand cells. Out of which, many lines fail to satisfy the different rigorous tests necessary to be given the prestigious name of “iPS cell”.
Continue reading Rett Syndrome and induced Pluripotent Stem cells goes “Green”
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