Stem Cell Channel (Audio)

Cellular modeling may hold the key to unlocking some the most important questions about autism. Alysson R. Muotri, PhD joins William Mobley, MD, PhD to explain how his work is shedding light on not only the pathology of autism but potential new drugs. Series: "Autism Awareness Programs" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 31433]

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects more than a million people in the US. Jeanne Loring, professor and the founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, discusses current research and potential future therapies for PD. In 2012, a partnership of scientists, clinicians, PD patients, and patient advocates was formed to develop a therapy for PD using patients' own skin cells that can be transformed into dopamine neurons, which can then be transplanted to their brains to restore lost cells. With further support from the foundation and granting agencies, the research and clinical partners hope to transplant cells to the first patient in about three years. This kind of partnership is unprecedented, and is inspiring for both the researchers and the patients, who are working together to develop the first effective therapy for PD. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 30484]

People with autism have difficulty with language and social interaction as if they are trapped inside their own brains. There is no cure. Dr. Alysson Muotri of UCSD devised a Fairy Tooth Kit Collection campaign in which autistic and unaffected kids could donate their baby teeth when they fell out. Using the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technique, Muotri's team extracted pulp cells in the teeth and converted them into brain cells. The autistic brain cells showed distinct deficiencies in the petri dish which could be reversed. In this seminar presented to the governing Board of California's Stem Cell Agency, Dr. Muotri describes these results in more detail. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 28241]