TERATOLOGY, SEEING RESEARCH THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS by Jane Lee www.arunabiomedical.com
above Shelley Wallace (left) and Jane Le
TERATOLOGY, SEEING RESEARCH THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS By Jane Le ArunA Biomedical Definition: Teratology is defined as the scientific study of malformations or serious deviations from the normal type in developing organisms (Merriam-Webster)
The Teratology convention was different in a number of ways from other scientific conferences that I’ve attended and I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a different side of science. Far from conferences where attendance is counted by the thousands, the Teratology Conference was attended by roughly three hundred researchers having research applications from studies of the human genome, human clinical case studies to animal modeling and in vitro cellbased research. I found it particularly interesting that the research of many of the attendees is so drastically different from my daily research at the bench. Conversations with a number of MD Clinicians were particularly compelling and their descriptions of their case studies gave me a humanized perspective of the importance of this field of research. (continued next page)
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The scope of unknowns related to birth defects is vast and while not reproducible in the lab there seems to be potential marriage of sorts in the variety of research applications conducted and the potential in combining these fields to gain answers. One way I think stem cell technology could bridge the gap between case studies and in vivo animal testing is through toxicity assays using human cells rather than the conventional animal model or cell line. I particularly think it would be interesting if we could get to the point where iPS cells could quickly and reliably be generated.
TERATOLOGY 14’
Rather than just using one or two cell lines to test a toxin, scientists could run toxicology assays using iPS cells from dozens, maybe even a hundred or more different individuals. I have no doubt that with the speed at which stem cell science is evolving, and the increasing efficiency automation brings, that this could be possible in the near future. Doing so could greatly increase the accuracy of data, and could be cheaper and more relevant than animal testing. In the meantime though, it’s encouraging to see more interest in using human stem cells in teratogen research. This experience allowed me to gain a new perspective on my own research and it was also refreshing to just experience the spirit of research and the pursuit of sharing knowledge that filled the conference. Meeting these people and discussing our work with one another charged my batteries in a sense, and left me inspired to come back to work and continue my research.
JANE LE ARUNA BIOMEDICAL
Stem Cell Differentiated Human Neural Cells as an In Vitro Model for Windows of Susceptibility
TOOLS FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH FOR MORE INFORMATION
Teratology 2014 The poster presented by ArunA titled “Stem Cell Differentiated Human Neural Cells as an In Vitro Model for Windows of Susceptibility” was a success. Many attendees of the conference stopped by to view the data obtained from our current ongoing studies, including several presenters and an EPA member. Several people commented on the good metabolomics results, but they would like to see which metabolites/pathways were affected by each toxicants. This is something that we are currently working on and hope to have those answers soon. People thought it was interesting how the cell type (hNP and hN2) affected the toxicants effect on viability and metabolomics. They were also interested that the 3µM for lead acetate and the 3mM for lithium chloride seemed to have a more significant metabolomics effect than the higher dose for each of those toxicants.
Conference Talks The session titled “In Vitro, Stem Cells, and Alternative Approaches” was my favorite session that I attended. Several of the studies presented in this session used neural stem cells, and I was surprised how many people were coming up with their own protocols to derive neural cells. It was
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by Shelley Wallace
Poster Comments
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interesting to see the experiments being performed with the same type of cells that ArunA produces. I was especially interested in a talk titled “The Effects of Carbamazepine and Valproic Acid on Gene Expression in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Based Assay for Neuro‐Developmental Toxicity” because I am getting ready to test viability and metabolomics for valproic acid. They used neural cells (confirmed by PCR) derived from the H‐9 line. Ms. Schulpen looked for gene expression at Day 1 and Day 7 post exposure. I was interested to see their dose range for valproic acid. The range selected was 0.01mM, 0.33mM, and 1.0mM. Another talk titled “Using Human Pluripotent Cells to Detect Teratogens and Study Teratogenic Mechanisms” looked at the effect of valproic acid and other toxicants on embryoid bodies. They made the embryoid bodies on agar well plates and stabilized the cells with ROCK inhibitor. The embryoid bodies were observed from the time the toxicants were added (Day 3) to Day 15. Valproic acid showed dramatic cell growth change starting as early as Day 6. From this experiment plate, they were also able to look at RNA and do teratology assays. It was very beneficial to hear talks that related directly to what I have been working on.
Human neural progenitor cells (hNP)