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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
HUMAN EMBROYONIC STEM CELL WORKSHOP
The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Toobox (HEST) workshop
will be held at The University of Georgia
August 30 - September 3, 2009
2008 Workshop Pictures
What is the HEST Workshop?
The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Workshop (HEST) at the University of Georgia is an intensive, laboratory
based, four-day course that gives participants the rare opportunity to work and train with instructors experienced in developing and propagating NIH-approved human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines.
Instructors for the workshop include both VCU and UGA faculty and scientists from industry. This unique relationship provides participants with an opportunity to learn recent advances in techniques and expose them to an environment that fosters academic and industrial relationships.
Is this for you?
This workshop brings together scientists with a particular training in embryology, developmental biology, tissue engineering and/or cell biology to learn the “how to” and theory of hES cells’ self renewal from a unique faculty of experts.
What will you learn?
- Propagation (mechanical and enzymatic), maintenance and cyropreservation of undifferentiated human embryonic stem (hES) cells
- Use of fibroblasts and other substrates for hES cell feeders
- Induced differentiation of hES cells
- Embryoid body formation
- Importance and guidelines of karyotyping hES cells
What makes HEST unique?
- Each participant receives a handbook for future use
- Participants can receive continued education and support including troubleshooting and on-site visits to the participant’s laboratory
- It is an intensive, laboratory-based, four-day course
- Work with various cell lines from different sources
- Learn various passaging techniques with various cell lines
The Regenerative Bioscience Center (RBC) provides a context for scientific collaboration across departmental and college boundaries to enhance the opportunities of faculty to secure extramural funding for research in the field. In its short history, RBC members have made significant contributions to human ESC research and education. Fourteen of the RBC faculty members are key personnel on extramural funded grants and contracts in the area of hESC research, and the RBC Core Facility has provided assistance to these faculty.
The RBC contributes to the University's educational and outreach mission through enhanced student research experiences and by addressing the interests and concerns of the public at lectures, symposia, and workshops communicating the benefits and risks of regenerative bioscience. In addition, the RBC actively participates and seeks new collaborations in research and service with other universities, health-related organizations and initiatives, involved in regenerative bioscience. Today there are over 40 faculty members in the Center. Dr. Steve Stice is the director, and the advisory board consists of four other faculty members at the University of Georgia.
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Education and training in hESC based research are important components of the RBC. The RBC faculty and GRA institutions are committed to education at every level.
The Human Embryonic Stem cell Toolbox (HEST) Workshop
A number of researchers from across Georgia as well from India, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. have attended and participated in the HEST workshop. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the HEST workshop has trained well over 38 investigators. The HEST workshop serves as the platform for future educational activities in the RBC. Drs. Mitialipova and Stice are the organizers of the HEST workshop and other RBC members including Drs. Baile, Condie, Dalton, Rao from UGA and Dr. Robins from BresaGen were lecturers.
Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) Symposia
Half-day symposiums on hESC topics are held twice per year in conjunction with the HEST workshop and with the Regenerate International Conference and Exposition to be held in Atlanta in 2005 . A pre-conference symposium on stem cells will be held prior to this meeting. Over 500 researchers interested in tissue engineering from around the world will come to this conference. The last symposium, in June 2004 "Stem Cell: the foundation for repairing the aging body" was attended by over 200 people, ranging from high school students to established investigators from several Georgia institutions.
Graduate and Undergraduate Courses and Training
RBC faculty have led and participated in several classroom, departmental and inter-institutional courses that include hESC topics. For example, Drs. Dalton and Stice were guest lecturers in over 20 class hours a year on stem cell topics ranging from the basic sciences to ethical considerations. In addition, Dr. Dalton teaches a graduate course on signal transduction that encompasses stem cells. Dr. Csete teaches classes in cell biology and will be teaching a dedicated stem cell course in 2005.
Undergraduate Research Experiences
Undergraduate students take honors credits to conduct research in RCB faculty laboratories. They gain invaluable hands-on research experience and development of critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills applicable in course work as well as the hESC based research. The program helps to identify academic and career interests and develop a collaborative, working relationship with a RBC faculty member early in a student's academic career. For example, Wes Ambrege under the guidance of Dr. Rao learned how to grow hESC during one semester and then received a Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) fellowship to conduct research on hESC cell differentiation to endothelial cells during the summer of 2004. CURO-AP participation is similar to taking a 3 credit hour class or having a part-time job. Students work an average of 10-12 hours per week for the entire academic year. In addition, participants are required to register for a 1-hour research seminar for academic credit that meets weekly. CURO-AP participants receive a stipend of $1000 per semester and $2500 for one summer.
High School Education on hESC
For the past four years High School students have spent 6 weeks in the hESC core facility as part of the Young Scholar Program at the University of Georgia . This program is funded from outside and private sources, but is mediated through the university. The purpose of the program is to recruit talented minority students into science majors at the land-grant universities. To apply to the Young Scholars Program, students must submit a letter of application outlining their academic or research interests, which helps the program leaders match them up with faculty mentors. Last year, Ferris Johnson from an Atlanta area high school helped develop a real-time PCR assay to decipher the level of mouse fibroblast cell mRNA contamination in hESC collected from mouse feeder layers.
Extramural stem cell grants
At least four UGA researchers have received supplementary funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) for stem cell research that relates to their current ongoing NIH-funded research. Some of the Principal Investigators that are obtaining extramural funding in the stem cell area include the following:
- Dr. Michael Pierce is leading a NIH-funded effort that uses stem cells in glycomic research that links collaborations within UGA and other institutions in Georgia.
- Drs. Steve Stice and Maya Mitalipova were recently awarded NIH funding on a proposed one year contract to use stem cells as a drug screening assay for neurological diseases.
- Drs. Clifton Baile and Steven Dalton have BresaGen corporate-sponsored research.
- Drs. David Puett, Steve Stice and Nancy Manley have received NIH supplemental funding for their work with hESC.
- Dr. Steve Stice has two other NIH grants 1) primate ES cell and 2) stem cell training grant.
- Drs. Lee Pratt and Marie-Michele Cordonnier-Pratt have NIH-NCI funding to do sequencing of human stem cells.
- Dr. Richard Meager with Abeome, Inc. has an NIH-SBIR with Dr. Steven Dalton
- Members of the RBC applied for a $1.8 million pre-center grant for human stem cells in mid-October 2004.
For more information about the HEST workshop and to submit your application please contact
Sharon Milton
smilton@uga.edu
500 D.W. Brooks Drive
150 Paul Coverdell Center
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
(706) 542-5922
(706) 542-5285 FAX
Secure FAX for credit card information once accepted into the workshop
(706) 583-8101
- What are human embryonic stem cells?
Stem cells that have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells for as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each "daughter" cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. - What classes of stem cells are there?
There are three classes of stem cells: totipotent, multipotent, and pluripotent.- A fertilized egg is considered totipotent, meaning that its potential is total; it gives rise to all the different types of cells in the body.
- Stem cells that can give rise to a small number of different cell types are generally called multipotent.
- Pluripotent stem cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body except those needed to develop a fetus.
- Where do stem cells come from?
Pluripotent stem cells are isolated from human embryos that are a few days old. Cells from these embryos can be used to create pluripotent stem cell "lines" —cell cultures that can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory. Pluripotent stem cell lines have also been developed from fetal tissue obtained from fetal tissue (older than 8 weeks of development). - Why do scientists want to use stem cell lines?Once a stem cell line is established from a cell in the body, it is essentially immortal, no matter how it was derived. That is, the researcher using the line will not have to go through the rigorous procedure necessary to isolate stem cells again. Once established, a cell line can be grown in the laboratory indefinitely and cells may be frozen for storage or distribution to other researchers.
Stem cell lines grown in the lab provide scientists with the opportunity to "engineer" them for use in transplantation or treatment of diseases. For example, before scientists can use any type of tissue, organ, or cell for transplantation, they must overcome attempts by a patient's immune system to reject the transplant. In the future, scientists may be able to modify human stem cell lines in the laboratory by using gene therapy or other techniques to overcome this immune rejection. Scientists might also be able to replace damaged genes or add new genes to stem cells in order to give them characteristics that can ultimately treat diseases.
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Why are doctors and scientists so excited about human embryonic stem cells?
Stem cells have potential in many different areas of health and medical research. To start with, studying stem cells will help us to understand how they transform into the dazzling array of specialized cells that make us what we are. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to problems that occur somewhere in this process. A better understanding of normal cell development will allow us to understand and perhaps correct the errors that cause these medical condition.Another potential application of stem cells is making cells and tissues for medical therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace those that are diseased or destroyed. Unfortunately, the number of people needing a transplant far exceeds the number of organs available for transplantation. Pluripotent stem cells offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat a myriad of diseases and conditions.
- Why not use adult stem cells instead of using human embryonic stem cells in research?
Human embryonic stem cells are thought to have much greater developmental potential than adult stem cells. This means that embryonic stem cells may be pluripotent—that is, able to give rise to cells found in all tissues of the embryo except for germ cells rather than being merely multipotent—restricted to specific subpopulations of cell types, as adult stem cells are thought to be.
2009 - The Spinal Cord Workshop:
April 4th. Hans Keirstead (UC Irvine) will be at UGA to speak at a workshop on moving Stem Cells from the lab into clinical trials. Hans developed a technique for differentiating embryonic stem cells into cells that may be a treatment for Spinal Cord Injury. Geron Inc is going into clinical trials with these cells in 2008 at multiple sites. This symposium is co Sponsored by the Bedford Foundations (Ann Kiessling) from Harvard and The Shepherd Center in Atlanta and Millipore Inc. Let me know if you are interested in attending.
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