The Stem Cell Report with Martin Pera

• A Look Into the Future of Stem Cell Reports: A Conversation with Janet Rossant

  In this special edition of the podcast, we will talk with the new Editor-in-Chief Janet Rossant and hear about her vision for the journal, its promising future, and what she sees as some of the exciting prospects over the horizon for stem cell research. We will also talk with Yvonne Fisher, the journal’s Managing Editor, and Jack Mosher of the ISSCR, about the evolution of the journal and its role in the Society. GuestsJanet Rossant is the new Editor-in-Chief of Stem Cell Reports. She holds an appointment as the Chief of Research Emeritus and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and is the President and Scientific Director of the Gairdner Foundation. Widely recognized as an expert in embryonic development, Professor Rossant has been recognized for her contributions to science with awards, including the Ross G. Harrison Medal (lifetime achievement award) from the International Society of Developmental Biologists, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, the Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology, and the 2018 L’Oréal For Women in Science Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of both London and Canada, and an International member of the US National Academy of Sciences. She previously served as President of the ISSCR. Learn more about Stem Cell Reports editorial team. Yvonne Fisher is the Managing Editor of Stem Cell Reports. Yvonne received her PhD from Frankfurt University and did her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Henrik Semb at the University of Lund in Sweden. Yvonne is the longest serving member of the journal, serving as Managing Editor since the journal’s inception in 2012. Jack Mosher is the Scientific Advisor for the International Society for Stem Cell Research. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Sean Morrison at the University of Michigan. Jack serves numerous roles for the Society including administrative oversight of Stem Cell Reports.  HostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson LaboratoryX: @martinperaJAXAbout Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the open access, peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.X: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsMegan Koch, Marketing ManagerJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorHunter Reed, Senior Marketing CoordinatorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff

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• SeqVerify: A New Easily Accessible Tool for Comprehensive Cell Line Quality Assessment

  During the last decade, advances in genome editing and pluripotent stem cell (PSC) culture have let researchers generate edited PSC lines to study a wide variety of biological questions. However, abnormalities in cell lines such as aneuploidy, mutations, on-target and off-target editing errors, and microbial contamination can arise during PSC culture or due to undesired editing outcomes. To ensure valid experimental results and the safety of PSC-derived therapeutics, it is important to detect these abnormalities and choose PSC lines without them. Existing quality control methods typically focus on detecting one type of abnormality. Whole genome sequencing is an all-in-one detection method for any abnormality involving changes to DNA sequences but until now it has required considerable computational expertise. Today’s guests will discuss a new computational tool, SeqVerify, that analyzes short-read WGS data for quality control of wild-type or edited PSCs. The platform provides an end-to-end analysis framework that can be a valuable quality control method for researchers working with PSCs, and more broadly, for cell line quality control in general. GuestsGeorge Church, PhD Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wyss Harvard Institute. Merrick Smela, PhD, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University. HostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson LaboratoryX: @martinperaJAXSupporting Content SeqVerify: An accessible analysis tool for cell line genomic integrity, contamination, and gene editing outcomes, Stem Cell ReportsAbout Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the open access, peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.X: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsMegan Koch, Marketing ManagerJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorHunter Reed, Senior Marketing CoordinatorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff

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• Guidelines for Managing and Using the Digital Phenotypes of Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines

  The ability of human pluripotent and somatic stem cells to differentiate into multiple cell types of the human body makes them uniquely useful to model human development and disease. As a result, these cells are shared, edited, and differentiated by laboratories across the world for basic research, clinical translation, and commercial applications. Large and genotypically diverse collections of pluripotent stem cells are being generated to support large cohort-scale research into conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, among many others. However, information about these cells, their derivatives, and the resulting data can be difficult to track due to a myriad of factors including poor naming practices, siloed datasets, and incomplete information on experimental practices in the published literature. As a result, the ability to maximize the utility of these cells and data from them is limited, and the rigor and reproducibility of the research and its application may be seriously compromised. Our guests today, who were part of the ISSCR Task Force that developed the Standards for the Use of Human Stem Cells in Research, will discuss in detail a framework to manage these issues using stem cell registries. GuestAndreas Kurtz, PhD, Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering and the Berlin Institute of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies Christine Wells, PhD, University of Melbourne Centre for Stem Cell Systems HostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson LaboratoryX: @martinperaJAXSupporting ResourcesGuidelines for managing and using the digital phenotypes of pluripotent stem cell lines, Stem Cell ReportsAbout Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the open access, peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.X: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff

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• PSC Developmental Bias: The Mechanism and the Variation in Human Neural Development

  Pluripotent stem cells are defined, in part, by their potential to generate cell types from all three embryonic germ layers. However, it is well known within the field that there is variability in developmental potential between cell lines. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as lineage bias, is manifest in a variable response of individual cell lines to induction of differentiation into a specific germ layer lineage. Although lineage bias in pluripotent stem cells has been reported for some years, we do not fully understand its molecular basis, or its implications for normal development. The guests on today’s program studied functional variation in human PSC lines as they progress through neurectoderm versus mesendoderm lineages and fore- versus hind-brain development. They will discuss the origin and consequences of inter-individual variation in the early events orchestrating human neural development, the extent to which such variation might impact on adult health and disease, and how it might be exploited in stem cell therapy. GuestsRon McKay is the Director of Basic Science at the Lieber Institute and has appointments in multiple departments and the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA. He currently serves as a member of the Stem Cell Reports Editorial Board. Suel-Kee Kim is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine, USA. Seungmae Seo is an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA. Seungmae is a former ISSCR Merit and Travel Award Winner. HostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson Laboratory@martinperaJAXSupporting ContentIndividual variation in the emergence of anterior-to-posterior neural fates from human pluripotent stem cells, Stem Cell ReportsAbout Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the open access, peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.X: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff

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• Aging, Stem Cells, and Biological Clocks

  Epigenetic clocks based on tissue DNA methylation analysis have emerged as robust and powerful biomarkers of aging.  This technology has allowed scientists to investigate how diseases affect the aging process, to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic aging interventions, and to correlate age with overall health among the general public. Today you can even purchase test kits online that enable you to measure your own biological age.  However, despite the growing use of epigenetic clocks in research, surprisingly little is known about the aging clock’s cellular underpinnings. For example, it remains unclear whether all cells within a tissue exhibit the same epigenetic age, and whether age-related cellular heterogeneity within a tissue affects the epigenetic clock. This is particularly relevant in regenerative tissues maintained by a hierarchy of stem, progenitor, and differentiated cells, all of which may change their frequencies within a tissue with age. The guests on today’s podcast tackle this important question through analyses of immature and mature cell populations from muscle, blood, and epithelia, using three different epigenetic clocks widely used in the field. They discuss their results, and the implications for the interpretation of existing clocks, and the development of more sensitive and accurate clocks. GuestsKonrad Hochedlinger, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Stem Cell Institute, MA, USARebecca Gorelov, PhD, Harvard Medical School, USAHostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson LaboratoryX: @martinperaJAXSupporting PaperDissecting the impact of differentiation stage, replicative history, and cell type composition in epigenetic clocks, Stem Cell Reports About Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the open access, peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.X: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith nearly 5,000 members from 75+ countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff

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