The Suzuki Laboratory
Faculty > Masatoshi Suzuki
Masatoshi Suzuki
Assistant Professor, Comparative Biosciences
Organ System/Disease Focus: Brain, muscle, neuromuscular disease, ALS, muscular dystrophy
Aligned Research Focus: Using stem cells as an in vitro model to understand disease pathobiology and the possible application of stem cells as a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.
Research Description:
Our current research is to apply stem cell technology to disease modeling and therapeutic applications for neuromuscular diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and muscular dystrophy.
We are using human neural progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem cells as therapeutic applications for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The overall aim of our current idea is to provide growth factor delivery using stem cells to the spinal cord (i.e. cell body) and/or skeletal muscle (i.e. nerve terminals of motor neurons). We will establish whether stem cell and growth factor therapies can protect motor neurons from degeneration in a rat model of ALS.
Furthermore, we start a new research project to establish skeletal muscle stem cells using human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This project is a part of the first project finding the best cells to transplant into the muscle for ALS and also will bring new therapeutic applications to other muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Selected References
Suzuki M, Svendsen CN. Combining growth factor and stem cell therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Trends Neurosci, 31(4):192-8, 2008.
Nelson A*, Suzuki M*, Svendsen CN. A high concentration of epidermal growth factor (EGF) increases the growth and survival of neurogenic radial glial cells within human neurosphere cultures. Stem Cells, 26: 348-355, 2008. *: Equally contributed.
Suzuki M, McHugh J, Tork C, Shelley B, Klein SM, Aebischer P, Svendsen CN. GDNF secreting human neural progenitor cells protect dying motor neurons, but not their projection to muscle, in a rat model of familial ALS. PLoS ONE, 2: e689, 2007.
Suzuki M, McHugh J, Tork C, Shelley B, Hayes A, Bellantuono I, Aebischer P, Svendsen CN. Direct muscle delivery of GDNF with human mesenchymal stem cells improves motor neuron survival and function in a rat model of ALS. Molecular Therapy, 16: 2002-2010, 2008.
Suzuki M, Wright LS, Marwah P, Lardy HA, Svendsen CN. Mitotic and neurogenic effects of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on human neural stem cell cultures derived from the fetal cortex. PNAS, 101, 3202-3207, 2004.