Study Shows Stem Cells Fiercely Abide by Innate Developmental Timing

February 28, 2017

(PhysOrg) – The mystery of what controls the range of developmental clocks in mammals—from 22 months for an elephant to 12 days for a opossum—may lie in the strict time-keeping of pluripotent stem cells for each unique species. Developmental clocks are of high importance to regenerative medicine, since many cells types take long periods to grow to maturity, limiting their usefulness to human therapies. The regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research, led by stem cell pioneer and UW-Madison professor James Thomson, is studying whether stem cell differentiation rates can be accelerated in the lab and made available to patients faster.