Download Dr. Hasan Uludag`s Lab Dr. Darren Freed`s Lab Dr. Evangelos

Lab Descriptions
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StemCellTalks5
Dr. Hasan Uludag’s Lab
Dr. Uludag’s lab studies how bone marrow cells during into osteoblasts which are responsible for building bone.
Because there are many different kinds of cells that live in your bone marrow, including red blood cells, white blood
cells, and mesenchymal stem cells, a sophisticated technology is required to isolate the correct type of cell. This is
by done by flow cytometry which shall be explained and demonstrated by this lab. It is a way of tagging markers on
the outside of cells still alive and separating them into specific groups of cells, including isolating bone marrow stem
cells. This lab tour also includes looking at the exciting fluorescent images of cells expressing green-fluorescept
protein which is a widely used tool in marking many different types of cerlls, including stem cells. The discovery
and use of this tool is so important that it’s discoverers won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008.
Dr. Darren Freed’s Lab
Dr. Darren Freed’s Lab – One of the focuses of this lab is to understand how stem cells are influenced by their
environment. They look at adult stem cells isolated from human patients undergoing heart surgery and collect bone
marrow mesenchymal progenitor cells and cardiac stem cells isolated from the atria of the heart. These cells are
grown and then studied to determine how they respond to different environments, for example a stiff scar
environment versus a soft, healthy muscle environment.
Dr. Evangelos Michelakis’ Lab
Dr. Evangelos Michelakis’s Lab – This lab is currently using a recently developed technique to create inducible
pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from skin cells. The discovery of this technique was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology in 2012. This lab is using this discovery to turn iPSCs into beating cardiac muscle to be used in a variety
of experiments to better understand different heart diseases. The lab technician who is working on this experiment
will be talking about how this technique is done.
Dr. Lynne Postovit’s Lab
Dr. Lynne Postovit’s lab uses both human embryonic stem cells and cancer stem cells to understand plasticity, a
cell’s ability to continually adapt to a changing environment. In particular, they use micro-environmental factors to
promote plasticity in cancer cells, inducing a cancer stem cell-like phenotype. Cancer stem cells are a subpopulation of cancer cells that retain the ability to self-renew and differentiate into the bulk population, much like
embryonic stem cells. One of the micro-environmental factors commonly used in the lab is hypoxia, a condition of
low oxygen.