Stem Cells: Developing New Cures

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The Science of Stem Cells

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American Museum of Natural History

The Science of Stem Cells

114 classificações

What promise do stem cells hold for the treatment of medical conditions? In this five-part online course you will explore the history and basic biology of stem cells, learn about new research techniques, and find out how stem cells could lead to cures for diseases and to individualized medicine. You will hear from Museum scientists, medical researchers at the frontiers of the field, and a panel of bioethics experts who will address the ethical implications of stem cell research and therapy. Learn what has already been accomplished, what challenges remain, and what medical breakthroughs may lie ahead.

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Using Stem Cells to Study Disease

We have covered the process by which scientists can differentiate cells in a culture dish. Now you will look at how scientists can use these cell to model diseases in a culture dish. Dr. Andrew Sproul from Columbia University explains how cultured cells can be used to understand the cause of diseases and to look for drugs that will potentially cure them. His research is on Alzheimer’s disease. You will also explore how how stem cells have the potential to help with the study of diabetes.

Introduction to Module Three2:12

Reprogramming and Genome Editing for Disease Modeling37:16

Stem Cells: Developing New Cures6:49

Conheça os instrutores

Dr. Zehra Dincer
Course Instructor

I'm a patient of Dr. Goland.

I've had type 1 diabetes for almost 40 years.

>> How are you doing?

>> I'm great.

>> Thanks for considering doing this.

>> Yeah.

>> So as we discussed, we're going to do a tiny little skin biopsy.

>> And Dr. Golden asked me to participate in this reseach

project to look into the benefits of doing stem cell research

in the context of helping people with diabetes.

[MUSIC]

>> When people on the street talk about stem cell research, or

they read about it in the New York Times,

I think they usually think of this futuristic aspect of it.

That we might be able to replace those cells which are lost in a disease, and

fix ourselves this way, to regenerate ourselves in this way.

But I think another very important application will be to use those cells,

to try to figure out why we get, and

to discover drugs which will stop us from getting sick in the first place.

>> Hello.

>> Hi.

>> How are you?

>> Good. I have lived 40

years with this disease and I'm a pretty healthy man, so again, I'm luck.

But it'd be great if I wake up tomorrow and someone could do something to me,

I wouldn't have diabetes.

But it'd be incredible, if the millions of people with diabetes, and the incredible

impact on the country in terms of cost, personal impact, could be affected.

[MUSIC]

>> Embryonic stem cells are isolated from the early human embryo.

It's a stage of embryonic development which is just a few days after

fertilization.

There are about 100 cells in this early embryo,

and then inside there's a small cluster of cells called the inner cell mass.

And from those cells, embryonic stem cells are derived.

These embryonic stem cells are remarkable cells,

because they have the ability to both self renew indefinitely in culture.

That is over a period of weeks we can go from a single cell in a dish

to an entire room full of cells.

And those cells all ready have the ability to give rise to any one of the different

cell types in our body.

Be they a nerve cell, a liver cell, a pancreatic cell, a muscle cell.

And so these cells are very powerful for scientists and

will allow them, I think, to investigate basic developmental

processes in our bodies, as well as try to study disease.

>> You'll feel a pressure sensation but it shouldn't hurt, okay?

>> Yep.

>> The skin biopsy is a very simple office procedure that is done with a small tool,

it's called a punch biopsy, and it takes a three millimeter biopsy of the skin.

It's either done in the upper arm or the upper leg, and

then the cells are grown in culture, and the DNA is extracted and

used in this procedure called somatic cell nuclear fransfer.

>> The somatic cell nuclear transfer is the process of removing

the genetic material from an oocyte, which is an unfertilized egg or

a very early embryo, and replacing it with the genes from an adult cell.

[MUSIC]

First you take the unfertilized egg.

That egg is surrounded by a little shell, that shell is called the zona pellucida.

And then a smaller [INAUDIBLE] is used to drill through that shell and

then to reach in to the egg, and remove the chromosomes.

[MUSIC]

The second step is to take the chromosomes from an adult cell,

[MUSIC] And transplant them back into the egg.

[MUSIC]

Then after those chromosomes are introduced, the cell is allowed to

divide into an embryo, and from that you can derive embryonic stem cell ones.

So the, the reason for

doing semantics cell nuclear transplantation is that by removing

the chromosomes from the egg and replacing them with these adult chromosomes.

You can make an embryonic stem cell line,

which has all the genes of that adult cell.

>> if we could take a stem cell and give it the nuclear material,

the DNA of a patient who has diabetes, and

let that stem cell develop into an insulin producing cell.

We could study the development of that cell,

we could study the processes that lead to the malfunction of that cell.

We could understand how the beta cell works at such a fundamental level,

that we would actually be able to intervene using other kinds of approaches.

So a primary promise of stem cells with regard to diabetes or

any of these other diseases, such as Parkinson's disease or

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Alzheimer's disease.

Is that we can create the cell type of interest that has the genetic mark

on it so to speak of an individual who has the disease.

And watch that cell develop, and we can see what the steps in development

are that have gone awry in that individual.

This will provide extraordinary insight that just simply is not available to us,

even by studying patients who we know will have the disease.

>> I think stem cell research is a real revolution in medicine.

Finally, for the first time, after 100 years of studying developmental biology,

we're able to use that information to try to develop cures.

[MUSIC]

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