Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy

Over the past decade, significant efforts have been made to develop stem cell-based therapies for difficult to treat diseases. Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells, also referred to as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), appear to hold great promise in regards to a regenerative cell-based therapy for the treatment of these diseases. Currently, more than 200 clinical trials are underway worldwide exploring the use of MSCs for the treatment of a wide range of disorders including bone, cartilage and tendon damage, myocardial infarction, graft-versus-host disease, Crohn's disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, critical limb ischemia and many others.

MSCs were first identified by Friendenstein and colleagues as an adherent stromal cell population within the bone marrow with the ability to form clonogenic colonies in vitro.  In regards to the basic biology associated with MSCs, there has been tremendous progress towards understanding this cell population's phenotype and function from a range of tissue sources.  Despite enormous progress and an overall increased understanding of MSCs at the molecular and cellular level, several critical questions remain to be answered in regards to the use of these cells in therapeutic applications.  Clinically, both autologous and allogenic approaches for the transplantation of MSCs are being explored.  Several of the processing steps needed for the clinical application of MSCs, including isolation from various tissues, scalable in vitro expansion, cell banking, dose preparation, quality control parameters, delivery methods and numerous others are being extensively studied.   Despite a significant number of ongoing clinical trials, none of the current therapeutic approaches have, at this point, become a standard of care treatment.  Although exceptionally promising, the clinical translation of MSC-based therapies is still a work in progress.

Dr. Lucas Chase has extensive research experience in both adult and pluripotent stem cell biology.  Upon obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2006, Dr. Chase joined the Stem Cells unit at Invitrogen Corporation (now Life Technologies), working on the development of cGMP culture media, advanced cellular models and drug discovery assays.  Recently, Dr. Chase joined Cellular Dynamics International, the world's largest producer of fully functional human cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, to support efforts to develop novel cell-based models for drug discovery and basic life science applications.  In addition to the current text, Dr. Chase also co-edited the book Mesenchymal Stem Cell Assays and Applications through Springer.

Dr. Mohan Vemuri is currently the Director, Research and Development of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at Life Technologies.  Since joining Life Technologies in 2006, Dr. Vemuri has lead a team focused on stem cell product development for human pluripotent and adult stem cell expansion and differentiation in cGMP-regulated conditions for applied research and cell therapy.  Before joining Life Technologies, Dr. Vemuri served as faculty and staff at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) and worked on engineering stem cells for enhanced self renewal, competitive engraftment and immune reconstitution utilizing novel gene transfer technologies. Mohan was also responsible for designing Parkinson's disease-related stem cell based assays and drug discovery efforts using GLP cell culture systems at Thomas Jefferson University.