Making drugs from stem cells 

Speaker: Micha Drukker
At the start of this year, Micha Drukker joined the LACDR as Professor of Stem Cells, Developmental Biology, and Technology for Innovative Drug Research. In this edition of This Week's Discoveries Drukker will explain about this new and exciting field of research that he has brought to our Faculty.
A promising new area of drug innovation uses stem cells. We investigate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells because directing them to produce specific cell types explains our own development, inborne and adult disease, and how to grow replacement tissues in the lab. We study how the flow of genetic information and the architecture of the nucleus determine the proliferation and differentiation of human iPSCs. One the application side, we develop methods to produce personalized lab grown tissue grafts. A special focus of our group are motor neurons, mechanisms of neurodegeneration, and development of stem cell drugs to treat neurodegeneration.