The Tesar Lab was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to advance therapeutics for multiple sclerosis. The Tesar Lab's expertise in stem cell biology and high throughput screening provides a unique opportunity to discover innovative therapeutics that could halt devastating diseases.
Oligodendrocytes are the cell-type responsible for myelinating neurons of the brain. In myelin diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis and Cerebral Palsy, oligodendrocytes are destroyed causing severe disability in patients. Researchers are desperate to understand disease pathology and also to develop cell transplantation therapies. However efforts have been largely hindered by limited access to oligodendrocytes.
The Tesar Lab has unlocked the potential to produce oligodendrocyte progenitors through a novel technique. This technique, published in Nature Biotechnology, involves directly converting fibroblasts into oligodendrocyte progenitors.
The PMD Foundation is an organization focused on serving those affected with Pelizaeus Merzbacher Disease (PMD). Click Here for more information.
MD/PhD student Zachary Nevin was awarded the James Y Garbern Research Project Grant to conduct his work on PMD patient specific induced pluripotent stem cell lines. Click Here for the press release.
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Paul Tesar was recently filmed in a RENEW online course. The RENEW initiative is focused on collecting videotaped courses and sharing these courses with students all over the world. Paul was elated to be part of the initiative by sharing his session on reprogramming technology. Paul hopes to make contagious his passion for science and inspire the next generation of scientists.
Paul Tesar was invited to speak at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland on January 23rd 2013. His talk was titled "Stem cell and reprogramming technologies for the study and treatment of myelin diseases". Paul is grateful to his colleagues and friends at the University of Edinburgh and hopes to return in the near future.
The Tesar and Scacheri Labs traveled to a lodge in Logan Ohio for their First Annual Lab Retreat. The event consisted of a 'Lab Olympics' competition, teambuilding exercises, talking science, having fun, and eating lots of great food! Thanks to everyone, especially Angela Lager, Olivia Corradin, and Cynthia Bartels, for making the event a great success.
Tesar Lab graduate student Bobby Karl was awarded the CWRU Cell and Molecular Biology Training Grant for his work on cellular reprogramming to the oligodendrocyte lineage with modified mRNA. Congratulations to Bobby!
Tesar Lab graduate student Dan Factor attended and presented his work "Epigenomic analysis identifies cell type specific regulatory elements of distinct pluripotent states" at a conference in China. The conference was Cold Spring Harbor Asia: Epigenetics, Chromatin & Transcription and held in Suzhou Dushu Lake China.
This review by Paul Tesar and Bob Miller is of work conducted at the University of Rochester in the lab of Steven Goldman. The Goldman lab identified CD140a as an appropriate marker of human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells.
Paul Tesar was named one of four Robertson Investigators of the New York Stem Cell Foundation in 2010.
The Robertson Investigator Award is awarded to early career investigators exploring the therapeutic potential of human stem cells. Winners are singled out for their potential to innovate in the field of Translational Stem Cell Research.
