Achievement

Fellow Aaron Carlson previously showed synthetic polymer scaffolds with specific fibrous geometries could support human embryonic stem cell (hESC) self-renewal in the absence of exogenous extracellular matrices (ECMs). He expanded this by investigating the mechanisms by which hESCs form colonies in the absence of exogenous ECM; and by demonstrating differentiation to multiple lineages, including neuronal cells, hepatic cells, and smooth muscle cellsidentified a functional link between laminin deposition and cellular survival by demonstrating that anti-laminin functional blocking antibodies reduce hESC survival in 3-D scaffolds lacking exogenous ECM. This suggests that binding to cell-deposited ECM is necessary for hESC survival. We also demonstrated a defined, 3-D transplantable culture system that supports differentiation to multiple lineages, which could be further developed into a means to both derive and deliver therapeutic cells from hESCs or iPSCs.