Computing Positional Cues: From Single Cells to Embryo Development

This episode is sponsored by Bio-Techne.

Computational approaches have become integral to understanding biological processes, in part because of a need to come to grips with the enormous amounts of high dimensional data that we generate using our current tools for cellular analysis. This is especially relevant for stem cell and developmental biology where development, disease modeling, regulatory networks, and lineage formation all lend themselves to the combination of experimental and computational methods. Today’s program explores how computational biology approaches can be used to understand and model early development, specifically the lineage commitment of the early embryo and its broader application to enhance the engineering of cell differentiation strategies.

 Martin Pera is joined by bioengineers Peter Zandstra and Himanshu Kaul. Dr. Zandstra is one of the early pioneers in the application of engineering principles to study stem cell biology and is a Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. He has received numerous honors and awards including being named the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering and he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Kaul is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow in the School of Engineering and Department of Respiratory Sciences and a new group leader at the University of Leicester.

Host
Martin Pera, PhD – Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson Laboratory
Twitter: @martinperaJAX

Guests
Peter Zandstra, PhD, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Himanshu Kaul, PhD,  University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Supporting Content
Virtual cells in a virtual microenvironment recapitulate early development-like patterns in human pluripotent stem cell colonies 

About Stem Cell Reports
Stem Cell Reports is the Open Access journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.
Twitter: @StemCellReports

About ISSCR
With more than 4,600 members from 75+ countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.
Twitter: @ISSCR

Acknowledgements

ISSCR Staff
Keith Alm, Chief Executive Officer
Yvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell Reports
Kym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic Communications
Jack Mosher, Scientific Advisor

Voice Work
Ben Snitkoff

Music
@Konovalov