Hans Keirstead's Research
The focus of the Keirstead Laboratory at UC Irvine is the development of strategies to limit degeneration and enhance regeneration after spinal cord injury and disease. The Keirstead Research Group utilizes a broad number of investigative techniques, including molecular and histological analyses, complex tissue culture, and in vivo experimentation. The Keirstead Research Group is also staffed to engage in FDA compliant pre-clinical work, employing a Regulatory Quality Assurance team that ensures that all research is FDA compliant.
The Keirstead Research Group is investigating strategies to reduce or eliminate the post traumatic enlargement of spinal cord injury sites that normally occurs after traumatic injury. The team developed an injection-based therapy that significantly decreased tissue loss if administered soon after injury. Human reagents necessary for clinical trials have been generated, and a clinical trial using this approach began in late-2005.
The Keirstead Research Group also investigates cell transplantation therapy for spinal cord injury, and was the first laboratory in North America to gain access to human embryonic stem cells Embryonic
Stem Cells Stem Cells
Undifferentiated cells,
Undifferentiated Cells
Cells that can become other cell types. They have not yet decided their fate; what type of cell they will become.
that can give rise to more mature differentiated cells and have the ability to self-replicate. There are many kinds of stem cells – adult stem cells (AS), embryonic cells (ES), embryonic germ cells (EG).
Pluripotent Stem-Cells
Stem cells, which can develop into any of the three major tissue types: endoderm (interior gut lining), mesoderm (muscle, bone, blood), and ectoderm (epidermal tissues and nervous system). Pluripotent stem cells can eventually specialize in any bodily tissue, but they cannot themselves develop into a human being.
cells that can differentiate into various tissues in the body.
hESCs
Human embryonic stem cells.
hESC
Human embryonic stem cells.
Blastocysts
A preimplantation
embryo Embryo
Organisms in the early stages of growth and development. In human, “embryo” generally refers to the time from implantation to about eight to twelve weeks after conception.
of about 150 cells produced by cell division following fertilization. The blastocyst is a sphere made up of an outer layer of cells (the trophoblast), a fluid-filled cavity (the blastocoel), and a cluster of cells on the interior (the inner cell mass).
SCNT
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (or Therapeutic cloning) - process of transferring a somatic cell into an enucleated cell.
