Newswise — LOS ANGELES (Sept. 12, 2024) -- The Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute is creating a resource laboratory to help advance stem cell-based technologies throughout Cedars-Sinai and across California. The institute will serve as a hub for the development of organ-on-a-chip and organoid models that bring precision to patient care and research.
“We’ve developed extensive expertise in creating induced pluripotent stem cells from patients, then turning those into models of the liver, kidney, heart, lung, brain, spine, pituitary gland, pancreas and other organs,” said Clive Svendsen, PhD, executive director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at Cedars-Sinai. “We’re now going to provide a core resource so that investigators across Cedars-Sinai and beyond can learn to use these technologies.”
The Cedars-Sinai Shared Resources Laboratory for Advanced Stem Cell Modeling is funded through a $4 million infrastructure grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The lab will be available to scientists throughout California.
“The Cedars-Sinai Shared Resources Laboratory will be part of a collaborative network of 11 such laboratories across California,” said Uta Grieshammer, CIRM SRL Program lead. “We are looking forward to supporting this network of labs as they share their expertise and provide access to cutting edge technologies, with the goal of accelerating discoveries in regenerative medicine and growing and diversifying the cohort of stem cell researchers in the state.”
Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, are cells that can be turned into many different cell types. These cells, in turn, can be grown on specialized chips that allow them to function the way they would in organs in the body. The cells also can be developed into organoids, which are miniaturized, simplified cell groups that mimic some of the key functions of organs.
In recent years, Cedars-Sinai investigators have used organoids and organ-chip technology to study gastrointestinal disease, neurological disorders, Crohn’s disease, musculoskeletal disorders, pituitary tumors, liver diseases, ovarian and breast cancer, lung fibrosis, the cardiotoxicity of cancer therapies, and how cancer develops.
“IPSC-derived organoids hold tremendous promise as a way to further our understanding of cancer development and progression,” said Joshua Breunig, PhD, director of the Cell, Organoid, and Cancer Engineering Special Resource in the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. “We can collect a patient’s normal cells, engineer them to become iPSCs and pair the resulting organoids with genetically engineered self-renewing tumors, allowing us to discover and test therapeutics in a more natural tissue-like context.”
In this way, the organoids can truly “personalize” disease models, Breunig said.
“This new resource will give researchers throughout California access to this exciting and powerful new technology,” said Arun Sharma, PhD, research scientist in the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and project director of the new laboratory. “Several of our faculty are highly experienced in this area of research and we will provide outstanding training to others through our educational programs. This includes trainees from underrepresented groups who otherwise might not have access to these systems.”
Cedars-Sinai has received several previous grants from CIRM, including grants for training of graduate and postdoctoral students, grants to develop stem cell-based disease treatments, and grants for biomanufacturing of induced pluripotent stem cells.
“We have developed nearly 1,200 iPSC lines—from healthy patients as well as those with ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatic cancer and other conditions,” said Dhruv Sareen, PhD, founding executive director of the Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center and the iPSC Core. “We are putting these into organ-chip models to help us understand disease characteristics and discover new treatments. This new lab will help us—and scientists throughout California—make progress to benefit patients everywhere.”
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