The Stem Cell Podcast

Dr. Noriaki Ono is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Center at Houston. His research focuses on bone development and regeneration. He talks about in vivo lineage tracing techniques and how early perichondrial cells contribute to developing bones. He also discusses the art and science of dentistry, mentorship, and moving his lab across the country.

Dr. Ryan Conder is the Director of Epithelial and Organoid Systems at STEMCELL Technologies.  He talks about the next phase in organoid research and what questions organoids can help answer. He also discusses his experience doing a postdoc in Vienna, and Vancouver as a growing biotech hub.

Keith Alm is the CEO, Dr. Haifan Lin is the President, and Dr. David Scadden is 2023 Annual Meeting Program Chair of the ISSCR. They talk about the upcoming annual meeting being held this year in Boston, a biotech hub with a vibrant stem cell research community. They discuss the highlights of this year's program including speakers, award winners, and more. They also discuss making this year's meeting more accessible to trainees and researchers around the world.

Dr. Lorenz Studer is the Director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute. His lab exploits recent advances in stem cell biology to develop new therapies for degenerative diseases and cancer. Their projects involve directing the fate and age of hPSCs, modeling diseases, and developing cell therapies. He talks about his journey into the stem cell field and co-founding BlueRock Therapeutics. He also discusses the challenges of developing cell therapies at scale, strategies to target cognition loss in Parkinson's disease, and combining basic and translational research.

Dr. Boyang Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University. His lab uses advanced biofabrication techniques to build human micro-tissue models for predictive drug discovery and to construct functional macro-tissues for tissue regeneration in patients. He talks about building microfluidic devices for biological applications and using machine learning to study organoid morphology. He also talks about his team's high-throughput system for vascularizing tissue spheroids and his experience starting a company to commercialize this technology.

In this special episode, Daylon and Arun chat with Drs. Jason Goldsmith and Brenda Raud, the hosts of The Immunology Podcast. Recorded in-person and led by Dr. Nicole Quinn from STEMCELL Technologies, the four hosts discuss the impact that podcasting has had on their careers and how it can make science and scientists more accessible. They also talk about the future of science communication and advice for young scientists pursuing careers in academia and industry.

Dr. Clive Svendsen is the Executive Director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai. His lab uses stem cells to develop models and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. He talks about using stem cells to model spinal muscular atrophy and the blood-brain barrier, and his cell-gene therapy trial for ALS.

Dr. Shuibing Chen is the Kilts Family Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her lab uses hiPSCs and ESCs for disease modeling and drug screening, with a focus on diabetes and infectious diseases such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2. She talks about her recent genome-wide association study in a dish, the role of philanthropic funding in stem cell research, and the role of industry partnerships in translational research.

Dr. Paola Arlotta is the Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. She is interested in understanding the molecular laws that govern the birth, differentiation, and assembly of the human brain’s cerebral cortex. She talks about using organoids to study the genetics of autism. She also discusses single-cell sequencing of brain organoids and how to make single-cell sequencing methods and data more accessible.

Dr. Jacob Hanna is an Associate Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and investigates cellular reprogramming and embryogenesis. This episode features a discussion on the challenges of growing embryo models in a roller culture system and the feasibility of making human gametes. Dr. Hanna also talks about launching the startup, Renewal Bio, the ethical discussions surrounding stem cell-derived embryos, and creating a more inclusive and equitable scientific community.