Month: April 2022

Hundreds attend 16th Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium focusing on stem cell competition

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On April 20, 2022, more than 260 students and researchers gathered for the 16th Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium in Madison, Wis. Co-hosted by the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center (SCRMC) and the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTC Institute), this annual event highlights the latest advances in stem cell science and technology. This year, the symposium focused on stem cell competition, which has important implications for healthy aging and disease states.

Throughout the day, virtual and in-person attendees heard from seven of the world’s leading researchers studying stem cell competition. Additionally, attendees participated in a rapid-fire poster session that included twelve presentations by graduate and post-doctoral researchers. The conversation continued during the lunch and networking session, with the rapid-fire presenters as well as eighteen other researchers sharing their posters throughout the event hall.

The SCRMC and the BTC Institute thank all who attended as well as the sponsors who helped to make this event a success.

Team of SCRMC researchers help to improve quality control for biomanufacturing stem cells

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A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, including members of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center (SCRMC), have developed an innovative methodology that can ultimately be used to advance cutting-edge personalized therapies and disease models.

The study, published in the journal GEN Biotechnology, outlines the new methodology which includes a real-time method for tracking the reprogramming of somatic cells to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using micropatterning, label-free imaging, and machine learning.

This novel study was led by Kaivalya Molugu, a recent PhD graduate in biophysics who worked in SCRMC faculty member and College of Engineering Associate Professor, Krishanu Saha’s lab where Molugu was funded through a Stem Cell and Regenerative Graduate fellowship. The study was a collaborative project with SCRMC faculty member and Professor of Biological Engineering, Melissa Skala’s lab.

SCRMC lab member Samuel Neuman receives 2022 Barry Goldwater Scholarship

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University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry and biomedical engineering student Samuel Neuman has been awarded the 2022 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. This prestigious scholarship recognizes outstanding undergraduate students who are pursing careers in science and was awarded, in part, due to Neuman’s work in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center (SCRMC) faculty member Marina Emborg’s Preclinical Parkinson’s Research Program.

As a member of Emborg’s lab, Neuman studies vehicles for delivering CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing reagents to the brain of multiple model organisms. Through this work, Neuman has earned authorship on a soon-to-be published manuscript. Neuman is also beginning research into a strategic neural-network therapy for Parkinson’s disease and will be conducting research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development later this year.