Stem Cell Research for Neurological Diseases | Dr. Piotr Walczak - Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund

discover how the maryland stem cell research fund is accelerating cures my name is piotr valchak i'm professor at the department of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine university of maryland baltimore i also co-direct the program on image guided neural interventions in my research i'm using advanced multi-modality imaging tools to accelerate the progress in developing cures for neurological diseases and in particular brain repair with stem cells when we think about the brain and how it works we mainly focus on neurons which form an exceptionally intricate network of connections with other neurons with the muscles to control their movement and with myriad of sensors that communicate pain temperature or touch throughout the body when neurons and this vast network of connections is damaged by disease or trauma they are very difficult to repair many research groups including my lab are working tirelessly to find out how to do this but we still need to remove a lot of obstacles before we can functionally restore damaged neuronal networks neurons are not the only brain cells responsible for normal neurological function another group of cells that recently is getting attention are glial cells especially oligodendrocytes oligodendrocytes are fascinating because they have the closest and direct contact with neurons they stretch their many processes to reach the axons and wrap around them to form myelin a special insulating layer that allows nerve cells to travel fast and efficiently there are many diseases in which these insulating cells are damaged or not working properly for example multiple sclerosis which affects 2.8 million people in the u.s or more rare genetic disorders such as parizeus mars by her disease the replacement of dysfunctional oligodendrocytes with stem cell transplantation is very promising and my group has made great strides in this strategy the maryland stem cell research fund was instrumental in turning our concept of oligodendrocyte site replacement strategy into a vibrant research program that over the years was fueled by many federal grants thanks to mscrf we have shown using a mouse model of parizevos marsbahar disease that transplantation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells into neonatal immune deficient recipients results in a spectacular therapeutic effect we found that the transplanted cells survive migrate throughout the brain differentiate toward myelinating oligodendrocytes and significantly extend the lifespan of these mice importantly for clinical translation we could monitor this therapy with mri to then invasively visualize the repair process as it unfolded over time it was a milestone and leap toward therapy of children suffering from this debilitating disease but there are still a few challenges that we are currently addressing the first of these remaining challenges is that our successful therapy was implemented in the immune deficient recipients and we need to address the issue of graft rejection in patients this was the goal of another mscrf grant we received and thanks to which we discovered a method for safe and highly effective induction of immunological tolerance to transplanted stem cells the second of these remaining challenges is that our successful therapy was with direct transplantation into a newborn mouse brain which is very small the human brain is 1000 times larger and for the cells to reach this large volume more effective cell delivery technique is needed we do this by performing e image guided intra-arterial administration to rapidly deliver the cells to every brain region where the cells are needed and with mri we can verify that in real time that the cells reach their targets in the brain over the years thanks in large part to the support from the maryland stem cell research fund we have removed many obstacles to the effective use of stem cells in patients suffering from devastating neurological disorders accelerating today's stem cell research into tomorrow's cures

Channel: Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF)

Views: 19,089

Keywords: Piotr Walczak, dr piotr walczak, radiology, neurological disorders, rare disorders, neurological system, research methodology, stem cell therapy, stem cell transplant, stem cells, stem cell research, stem cell technology, stem cell treatment, image guided radiation therapy, image guided therapy, multiple sclerosis, research methods, oligodendrocytes, myelin sheath, pelizaeus-merzbacher disease, interventional radiology, promise of medicine, research, brain, cell therapy, walczak

Id: ZUbINH7tISg

Length: 5min 0sec (300 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022