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SELECT MEMBER PUBLICATIONS*
Bruce Appel, Ph.D., Professor, Pediatrics, published a paper in Development that provides new evidence for how neural progenitor cells stop dividing and produce neurons and glia. In particular, the manuscript shows how microRNA mir- 219 modulates the response of neural progenitors to a key molecular signal called Sonic Hedgehog that promotes progenitor cell division.
Steven Dow, DVM, Ph.D., Professor, Clinical Sciences, Colorado State University, published two papers in Stem Cells and Development investigating mechanisms by which canine mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) suppress T cell activation and dendritic cells maturation and activation. These studies discovered that adipose and bone marrow derived MSCs utilize overlapping as well as distinct biochemical pathways to suppress T cell activation and cytokine production. A key role for PD-L1 in suppression of dendritic cell function by MSCs was also discovered.
Curt Freed, M.D., Professor, Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, and Wenbo Zhou, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, published a paper in the journal PLoS One that describes their creation of a cell line that will help research on Parkinson’s disease. The cells make the chemical dopamine, which is essential for normal movement. In Parkinson’s disease, the brain cells that make dopamine die off. The authentic dopamine neurons were selected by isolating single cells and allowing clones to grow. This new cell line is being requested by labs around the world to help with research on Parkinson’s.
Mayumi Fujita, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Dermatology, has a paper accepted for publication in Oncogene identifying the mechanism by which NLRP1 (NACHT, LRR and PYD domains containing protein 1) promotes the growth of human melanoma by enhancing inflammasome activation and suppressing apoptosis.
James Hagman, Ph.D., Professor, Immunology and Microbiology, has a paper accepted for publication in the American Journal of Human Genetics identifying de novo mutations in the atypical transcription factor EBF3 as the cause of a neurodevelopmental syndrome.
Jeffrey Jacot, Ph.D., Associate Professor/Bioengineering, published a paper in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering reporting that stem cells isolated from human amniotic fluid have the potential to differentiate into heart muscle cells. His long-term goal is to use tissue engineering to create a living cardiac patch from amniotic fluid stem cells isolated from a fetus with a congenital heart defect that fetal surgeons would use to repair the heart defect in utero.
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