Stem cell webinars coming up

Biotech company STEMCELL Technologies is hosting two webinars in the coming weeks, giving scientists interested in stem cell research the chance to hear from experts in the field from the comfort of their own homes — just as long as they don’t mind waking up a little early.

On 22 February at 4 am AEDT, Dr James Wells will be discussing the advances made in the directed differentiation of primary stem cells to gastrointestinal (GI) tissues and their culture as 3D organoid structures. An Endowed Professor at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dr Wells has spent over 20 years uncovering the processes by which gastrointestinal and endocrine organs form in the developing embryo and in vitro stem cell cultures to model and better understand human development and disease.

Topics to be discussed include:

• The critical importance of understanding developmental biology to generate human pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived organoids.
• Identification of new mechanisms that control gastrointestinal (GI) organ development.
• Use of developmental principles to generate 3D GI organ tissues from human PSCs.
• Human PSC-derived GI organoids as models of human development and disease.

To register for the organoid webinar, click here.

A few weeks later, on 16 March at 2 am AEDT, Dr Kevin Shoulars will be discussing his work at Duke University Medical Center on the development of a rapid flow cytometry-based method for measuring the potency of cord blood units (CBUs). This work enables the enumeration of viable CD45⁺ and CD34⁺ haematopoietic stem cells that express high levels of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH^br). The webinar will discuss the importance of measuring cord blood unit potency before transplantation, as well as the development and validation of a rapid, aldehyde dehydrogenase-based cord blood potency assay.

To register for the CBU webinar, click here.

Recordings of both webinars will be sent to all who register, whether they attend the live versions or not, so anyone with an interest in this field is encouraged to put their name down.