Recent advances in disease modeling with directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells have offered alternatives to mouse models and given us the ability to understand disease on a cellular level. Familial Dyskinesia with Facial Myokymia (FDFM) is an autosomal dominant movement disorder. Characterized by involuntary twitches or tremors, FDFM has been causatively linked to several mutations in the adenylate cyclase 5 (ADCY5) gene, which is highly expressed in the striatum.

Malignant glioma is the most common primary brain tumor with approximately 20,000 new cases expected in the United states in 2018. It has been shown that approximately 12% of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and ⅓ of all adult gliomas display mutations in the isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (IDH1/IDH2) genes. To date, no effective therapeutics exist that show specificity towards IDHMUT gliomas. In order to find a potential therapeutic for IDHMUT gliomas, the Persson lab conducted a high throughput drug screen of over 2,177 FDA-approved compounds.

Hearing loss and equilibrium disorders are the most frequent chronic detrimental conditions of the aging population, severely affecting their quality of life. Moreover, 1 in 500 teenagers suffer from severe hearing loss that is either manifest at birth or progressive in nature. The inner ear, responsible for auditory and vestibular function, is an organ that arises from the otic placode, a transient cranial structure that develops from an ectodermally-derived pre-placodal region lateral to the developing neural crest.

Deletions and translocation in non-coding DNA regions around Sox9 gene are associated with craniofacial disorders. This project will assess changes in Sox9 gene expression via enhancers in the breakpoint regions around Sox9 during neural crest differentiation. Cranial neural crest cells (cNCC) will be differentiated in-vitro from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Preliminary data has shown enhancer-promoter interactions, luciferase reporter assays and CRISPR will be used to downregulate enhancers and analyze Sox9 transcriptional activity.

The overall goal of my lab is to work on optimizing a stem cell therapy to add onto the current in-utero surgical treatment of spina bifida. My lab primarily focusses on using human placental stem cells for our treatments. Starting out, I will be tasked with comparing exosome secretion between placental stem cells from different terms, as well as to bone marrow stem cells. This will allow us to determine if there is an optimal stage of development for harvesting placental stem cells, and to determine if placental cells have a greater neuroprotective effect than bone marrow stem cells.

The project will be centered around determining gene expression and glycosylation levels of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), prior to cell culture, in an attempt to better understand differentiation,proliferation, and self-renewal as well as optimizing their use for potential therapeutic applications including: bone repair, non-healing ulcers, and critical limb ischemias.

Two dimensional cell cultures have provided many insights regarding cardiac disease. However, 3D tissue models are superior due to their ability to aggregate and form cell-matrix interactions similarly to in vivo tissues [1-4]. For this project we aim to (1) bioengineer cardiac microtissues from human-iPSCs (hiPSCs), (2) direct differentiation of independent cell populations (e.g.

Dr. Akhurst's general research area has to do with the TGF-Beta signaling pathway, which is active in many cellular processes. Most notably in the control of cellular proliferation and differentiation, which is why it has been implicated in a variety of cancers and other diseases. HHT, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia is one of these diseases, it has been described as a disease of excessive angiogenesis.

X linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID), is a recessive disease caused by mutations to the gene IL2Rγ and is characterized by a non-functional immune system. We have designed a method for functionally correcting patient hematopoietic stem cells, at the IL2Rγ locus, by creating a double strand break at the first exon of IL2Rγ and delivering a repair donor using an AAV6 vector. The repair donor contains a functional cDNA of IL2Rγ and a selectable marker, truncated nerve growth factor receptor (tNGFR). Optimizing our genome editing strategy in K562 cells a myelogenous cell line.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult stem cells that have significant clinical implications due to their multipotent ability to differentiate into the mesodermal lineage, their involvement in tissue repair, and secretion of cytokines that promote healing. However, it is known that MSCs populate a small fraction of cells in the bone marrow, therefore necessitating in-vitro expansion and pooling different MSCs donor banks for treatment.