Stem Cell Research Program - University of Wisconsin

Neural stem cells

The Waisman Center with its Stem Cell Research Program (SCRP) belongs to the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The Waisman Center was established in 1973.

The SCRP includes the Zhang Laboratory and the Svendsen Laboratory.

Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Ph.D, Director
Clive Svendsen, PhD
David Gamm, MD, PhD
Su Chun Zhang, MD, PhD

T680 Waisman Center
1500 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705-2280
USA
Phone: +1-608-265-8668
Fax: +1-608-265-4103

Research at the Waisman Center focuses on human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Clive Svendsen Lab concentrates on the research of neural stem cells concerning the development of the brain and the manipulation of these cells i.a. to create therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease .

The development of these therapeutics is based on two approaches:

The first approach involves the regeneration and protection of diseased nerve cells. Here, regeneration occurs via replacing aggrieved nerve cells by using neural stem cells.

The second approach is to engineer neural stem cells to produce a drug that can protect dying neurons. The idea behind is to transplant these neural stem cells into the brain so that they act as a drug pump.

The Zhang Laboratory focuses on neural induction and differentiation. Model systems based on embryonic stem cells give information about the early phase of neural development in temporal course, morphological transformation and gene expression patterns.
The laboratory develops a culture system to investigate the formation of the human brain in which naive stem cells grow to engineered “mini-brains” or “mini-spinal cords”.

The production of midbrain dopamine neurons and spinal cord motor neurons from the self-sustaining human embryonic stem cells offers the ability of directed drug screening and repair of injured and diseased brain and spinal cord.