BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Manipulating stem cell fate in bioengineered niches 
DTSTART:20130527T121500
DTEND:20130527T131500
DTSTAMP:20260408T121711Z
UID:d5b4b66464d304f2726da6766f3f2ce0a00579ec4daad076673ac71b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Matthias Lutolf\nBio: Dr. Lutolf is tenure-track Assista
 nt Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Bioengineering at the
  EFPL. He was trained as a Materials Engineer at ETH Zurich where he also 
 carried out his Ph.D. studies on the development of a novel class of bioma
 terials for tissue engineering and cell biology (awarded with ETH medal\, 
 2004). In 2005\, with fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundati
 on and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society\, Lutolf joined the Baxter Laboratory
  in Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University to study microenvironmental (
 ‘niche’) regulation of adult stem cells. In 2007\, Lutolf received a E
 uropean Young Investigator (EURYI) award to start up his independent resea
 rch group at EPFL. By interfacing advanced biomaterials engineering\, micr
 otechnology and stem cell biology\, a major goal in his lab is to uncover 
 mechanisms of stem cell fate regulation by developing and applying ‘arti
 ficial niches’ which allow probing stem cell biology at the single cell 
 level under well-defined biochemical and biophysical conditions.\nTissue h
 omeostasis and regeneration are critically dependent on rare stem cells an
 d their ability to self-renew and to give rise to more specialized progeny
 . Stem cells have been heralded as the future of medicine\, however\, many
  hurdles need to be overcome before they can be broadly used in clinical a
 pplications. An important challenge is to better understand how the delica
 te balance of stem cell quiescence\, self-renewal and commitment is regula
 ted\, which is a prerequisite to successfully maintain and propagate such 
 cells for therapeutic uses. The complex microenvironment in which the stem
  cells reside\, called the niche\, has been shown to play a crucial role i
 n this process\, yet the underlying mechanisms regulating stem cell-niche 
 crosstalk are poorly understood. In order to dissect this complex molecula
 r interplay\, we have engineered artificial stem cell niches using advance
 d biomaterials and micro-technology approaches and have employed these in 
 vitro systems to better understand the role of the microenvironment in reg
 ulating stem cell fate.\nIn this talk\, I will illustrate our approach wit
 h two recent examples. First\, I will show how we use single cell analyses
  to systematically probe how hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) change their fa
 te in culture\, identifying functional artificial niches that promote HSC 
 quiescence and maintain long-term multipotency. In the second part\, I wil
 l discuss how we tackle the problem of complexity in the stem cell niche. 
 To systematically dissect the role of the various factors that determine s
 tem cell fate\, we have developed novel high-throughput paradigms to simul
 taneously generate thousands of unique artificial niches and evaluate thei
 r effects on cell fate. We are thus able to unveil comprehensive maps of i
 nteractions relating microenvironmental parameters and their role in regul
 ating self-renewal and lineage commitment.
LOCATION:SV1717a http://map.epfl.ch/?room=sv1717a
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR