Sean Richards
  1. Current research activities

    2. Sean Richards is a member of the TBRI Program and is currently examining the use of novel growth factor complexes to improve the culture of stem cells for patient therapy. His project is examining new culture methodologies that involve the presence of insulin-like growth factors, vitronectin and insulin-like growth factor binding proteins. In particular he is examining whether these complexes can support the propagation of human embryonic stem cells in the absence of serum and feeder cells, thus avoiding xenogeneic and/or allogenic proteins/systems. If successful, this would pave the way to accelerate the development and delivery of embryonic stem cell-based treatments and cures for a number of conditions including paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other nervous system disorders. This technology has broad application and is likely to be applicable to not only hES-derived neuronal cells, but also neuronal progenitor cells derived from adult tissues.

  2. Keywords

    3. Feeder-Free Expansion of Human Embryonic Stem Cells.

  3. End-user applications

    • Development of a new human embryonic stem (hES) cell line
    • Expanding on the current knowledge that exists in the field of hES cells.
    • Identify how to create specific tissues for transplantation therapies
    • Identify specific biochemical pathways to allow for the creation of organs
    • hES cell line that will be safe for the use in therapeutic applications

  4. Key publications

    5. I. Richards M, Fong CY, Chan WK, Wong PC, and Bongso A (2002). Nat Biotechnol 20(9): 933-6
    II. Xu C, Inokuma MS, Denham J, Golds K, Kundu P, Gold JD, and Carpenter MK (2001). Nat Biotechnol 19(10): 971-4.
    III. III. Amit M., M. K. Carpenter, M. S. Inokuma, C. P. Chiu, C. P. Harris, M. A. Waknitz, J. Itskovitz-Eldor and J. A. Thomson (2000). "Clonally derived human embryonic stem cell lines maintain pluripotency and proliferative potential for prolonged periods of culture." Developmental Biology 227 (2):271-8.
    IV. IV. Lebkowski, J. S., J. Gold, C. Xu, W. Funk, C. P. Chiu and M. K. Carpenter (2001). "Human embryonic stem cells: culture, differentiation, and genetic modification for regenerative medicine applications." Cancer Journal 7 Suppl 2: S83-93
    V. Schuldiner, M., O. Yanuka, J. Itskovitz-Eldor, D. A. Melton and N. Benvenisty (2000). "Effects of eight growth factors on the differentiation of cells derived from human embryonic stem cells." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 97(21): 11307-12.

  5. Outreach activities

    6. Not as Yet.

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Not as Yet.

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. Yes.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • hES cell Tissue culture
    • Biochemcial Assays (Proliferation/ attachment)
    • Real time PCR
    • Proteomics
    • Genomics
    • Immunohistochemistry
    • Scanning Electron Microscopy

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • AbiCore DNA Real Time PCR machine
    • ProteomeLab™ PA 800 Protein Characterisation System’

© 2004

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