Regenerative Medicine
Regenerative Medicine Comes of Age
Two distinguished UT Southwestern scientists discuss new developments in regenerative medicine.
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egenerative medicine offers the potential to heal or replace tissues damaged by age, disease, or trauma, as well as to cure congenital diseases. It encompasses numerous strategies – many of which are being employed by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists, among whom are some of the top researchers in the field. A prime example is Sean Morrison, Ph.D., founding Director of the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute (CRI) at UT Southwestern, who is leading a team performing innovative research aimed at understanding mechanisms that maintain stem cell function in adult tissues and the ways in which cancer cells hijack these mechanisms to enable tumor formation. “We study the regulation of stem cell function – and the role that stem cells play in regenerating adult tissues,” Dr. Morrison says. “Our focus is on the bone marrow, where two important types of stem cells are found: hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells.”
Focusing In on Stem Cells
Recent research by Dr. Morrison and his colleagues provided new insights into the ability of specialized cells in the bone marrow to regulate hematopoiesis and osteogenesis, including the roles of endothelial cells and leptin receptor-expressing mesenchymal stromal cells. Dr. Morrison further explains that his laboratory found that leptin receptor-expressing stromal cells serve three crucial functions in stem cell biology. These cells are the main source of growth factors required for the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells, serve as precursors to osteoblast cells needed for bone growth, and produce bone-forming growth factors required to maintain skeletal bone mass. “We recently discovered a new bone-forming growth factor that has the potential to reverse bone loss associated with osteoporosis,” Dr. Morrison says. The researchers named the new bone-forming growth factor Osteolectin, which is produced by the leptin receptor-expressing cells in the bone marrow. Dr. Morrison and his team at CRI were the first to demonstrate that Osteolectin promotes new bone formation by stimulating the formation of osteoblasts from the leptin receptor expressing skeletal stem cells. “The identification of Osteolectin is just one example of the highly innovative work at UT Southwestern that is creating new opportunities for tissue regeneration therapies,” he adds.
Heralding Advances in Cardiac Medicine
Akansha Shah, Ph.D., studies the development of the childhood muscle tumor rhabdomyosarcoma and the basis of heart regeneration in newborn mice at the Olson Lab.
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Discovery at UT Southwestern 2 0 2 4
Another prominent UT Southwestern scientist working in regenerative medicine is Eric Olson, Ph.D., Professor and founding Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Director of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine. His research seeks to understand how stem cells adopt specific fates and how programs of cell differentiation and morphogenesis are controlled during muscle development. “We’re working to decipher the genetic networks that direct the formation of muscle tissues during development,” Dr. Olson says.
