Unlocking Chimeric Competency for Regenerative Medicine

The goal of this research is to facilitate the generation of human organs and cells for transplantation and repair of the human body. The generation of animal organs and cells from stem cells has been achieved in laboratory animals by applying methods of stem cell complementation in gene edited blastocysts to produce intraspecies chimeras. Attempts to generate human organs and cells by this approach has thus far failed to be achieved because of interspecies barriers. Our project proposes to examine the molecular mechanisms underlying theses barriers in order to translate this stem cell complementation approach to the clinical setting.