Rethinking Developmental Biology With Cellular Reprogramming

Human cells are a cornerstone of fundamental disease research, drug discovery, and clinical translation. Yet, despite decades of research into stem cells, the technical challenges associated with the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into somatic cell types. The resulting lack of standardised, easy-to-use and readily accessible human cells has held back their use in drug discovery and cell therapy for some of the world’s most pervasive diseases. 

The discovery of cell reprogramming has sparked a step change in the way scientists think about developmental biology. By leveraging the molecular mechanisms that define cell identity we are now able to efficiently generate human cells that mimic human biology in vitro.

In this webinar, Dr Marius Wernig from Stanford University and Dr Mark Kotter, bit.bio offer an expert discussion on the history and evolution of cell reprogramming, discussing the technologies that now make it possible to generate any human cell from a stem cell. They will cover the initial approaches that paved the way for the astounding discovery of direct conversion from one cell identity to another and how precision cell reprogramming is impacting research, drug discovery and cell therapy. 

Dr Wernig will cover his pioneering work on cellular reprogramming, which challenges the traditional paradigm of developmental biology. His group first discovered the ability of transcription factors to induce neural cells across lineage boundaries, suggesting that cell reprogramming might be a generalisable approach. Further application of this novel paradigm to multiple cell types is group and subsequently many other groups seem to support this notion. This new model of cellular identity lays the foundation for an alternative approach to converting  human pluripotent stem cells to somatic cell types. 

Dr Kotter will discuss how hPSCs resist such cell type conversions and how these can be overcome. This insight enabled the translation of cellular reprogramming into a new, highly controlled and precise manufacturing approach for human cells. He will further discuss how bit.bio’s discovery platform extends this approach to potentially all human cell types.

In this webinar you will learn about:

• The foundational research that led to the origin of cell reprogramming
• The discovery of key transcription factors that define neural cell identity and how neurons can be induced, mature and maintain their identity.
• The current advancements in precision cell reprogramming that are being powered by the latest synthetic biology toolkits
• How these technologies will impact and influence the future of human cell biology, drug discovery and clinical translation