Manipulating stem cell fate in bioengineered niches
Event details
| Date | 27.05.2013 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker |
Prof. Matthias Lutolf Bio: Dr. Lutolf is tenure-track Assistant 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 biomaterials for tissue engineering and cell biology (awarded with ETH medal, 2004). In 2005, with fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation 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 European Young Investigator (EURYI) award to start up his independent research group at EPFL. By interfacing advanced biomaterials engineering, microtechnology and stem cell biology, a major goal in his lab is to uncover mechanisms of stem cell fate regulation by developing and applying ‘artificial niches’ which allow probing stem cell biology at the single cell level under well-defined biochemical and biophysical conditions. |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Tissue homeostasis and regeneration are critically dependent on rare stem cells and 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 applications. An important challenge is to better understand how the delicate balance of stem cell quiescence, self-renewal and commitment is regulated, 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 in this process, yet the underlying mechanisms regulating stem cell-niche crosstalk are poorly understood. In order to dissect this complex molecular interplay, we have engineered artificial stem cell niches using advanced biomaterials and micro-technology approaches and have employed these in vitro systems to better understand the role of the microenvironment in regulating stem cell fate.
In this talk, I will illustrate our approach with two recent examples. First, I will show how we use single cell analyses to systematically probe how hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) change their fate in culture, identifying functional artificial niches that promote HSC quiescence and maintain long-term multipotency. In the second part, I will discuss how we tackle the problem of complexity in the stem cell niche. To systematically dissect the role of the various factors that determine stem cell fate, we have developed novel high-throughput paradigms to simultaneously generate thousands of unique artificial niches and evaluate their effects on cell fate. We are thus able to unveil comprehensive maps of interactions relating microenvironmental parameters and their role in regulating self-renewal and lineage commitment.
In this talk, I will illustrate our approach with two recent examples. First, I will show how we use single cell analyses to systematically probe how hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) change their fate in culture, identifying functional artificial niches that promote HSC quiescence and maintain long-term multipotency. In the second part, I will discuss how we tackle the problem of complexity in the stem cell niche. To systematically dissect the role of the various factors that determine stem cell fate, we have developed novel high-throughput paradigms to simultaneously generate thousands of unique artificial niches and evaluate their effects on cell fate. We are thus able to unveil comprehensive maps of interactions relating microenvironmental parameters and their role in regulating self-renewal and lineage commitment.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- School of Life Sciences (SV), Dean's Office
Contact
- M. Mary / H. Hirling