Dr. Thomas Vierbuchen is Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In this episode, he talks about using PSCs to model neurodevelopmental processes. He also discusses his direct reprogramming work and his lab's recent study on OTX2 in gastrulation.

Dr. Sumru Bayin is a Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. She talks about her work on regeneration in the neonatal mouse cerebellum and how cerebellar interneurons differentiate. She also discusses organizing a workshop to facilitate collaborations in regenerative biology, and her memories of the late Sir John Gurdon.

Dr. Juan Melero-Martin is an Associate Professor and the Endowed Chair in Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital. His lab uses bioengineering principles to understand how vascular networks are formed and the mechanisms by which the vasculature modulates the engraftment and activity of various human stem cells.

Dr. Carole LaBonne is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University. Her lab studies the genesis of neural crest stem cells at the level of the signaling pathways and transcription factors that comprise the neural crest gene regulatory network. They also study how these mechanisms contribute to exit from pluripotency and the subsequent lineage restriction of neural crest cells to their derivative cell types that collectively define vertebrates.

Dr. Paul Tesar is the Director of the Institute for Glial Sciences and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve University. His lab uses PSCs to model neurological development and disease with a specific focus on oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. He talks about his work on oligodendrocyte maturation, advancing research into the commercial and clinical sectors, and mentoring the next generation of scientists.

Dr. Lars Velten is a Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. He talks about his research on cell-state-specific enhancers in hematopoiesis and lineage tracing techniques to study blood aging. He also discusses combining generative AI with wet lab techniques and the advantages of risk-taking in basic research.

Dr. Alice Soragni is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She talks about her work on patient-derived organoids and how they can be adapted for drug screening. She also discusses how she transitioned from structural biology to research on protein aggregation and rare diseases, and the current social media landscape for scientists.

Dr. Zhongwei Li is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. His lab focuses on kidney organogenesis with translational applications of kidney regeneration and disease modeling. He talks about his work on PSC-derived nephron progenitors and drug discovery applications for polycystic kidney disease.

Dr. Mark Hatley is an Associate Faculty Member and Director of the Division of Molecular Oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. His research focuses on the developmental origins and genetic mechanisms of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. He talks about his work on pediatric oncology and the mechanisms that differentiate normal development from cancer. He also discusses the role of PAX3-FOXO1 and DICER1 in tumorigenesis.

Dr. Jeanne Loring is a Co-Founder of Aspen Neuroscience and Professor Emeritus at Scripps Research.  She talks about generating gametes from the functionally extinct northern white rhinoceros, Aspen's early days and its recent clinical trial results for Parkinson's cell therapy, and sending her own stem cells into space. She also discusses the need for genetic variation in iPSC lines.