Pancreatic Disorders and Treatment

Biography

Dr. Nicholas Zavazava's work primarily focusses on stem cells. His lab is interested in studying stem cell derived hematopoietic cell and insulin producing cells. Type 1 diabetes is one of the most devastating chronic diseases which costs billions of dollars every year. By establishing a stem cell based source of insulin producing cells, they belive they might be able to treat many patients who would otherwise remain untreatable. Embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells possess an unparalleled characteristic of being pluripotent and therefore able to differentiate into progenitor cells of any cell type. Their laboratory seeks to exploit this property and derive hematopoietic cells and insulin producing cells from human ES and iPS cells. More importantly, they are interested in determining whether these cells are rejected in both the syngeneic and allogenic setting. Using proteomics, they have discovered a “stem cell factor” that is only produced in vivo by the progenitor cells leading to recruitment of NK cells and rejection of the progenitor cells. A second aspect that they are interested in is to coax human iPS cells to differentiate into insulin producing cells for the treatment of diabetes. They are working on how they can convert near 100 % of the iPS cells into Pdx1-expressing cells that further differentiate into insulin producing cells. Pdx1 is a pancreatic transcription factor that regulates pancreatic development. Our goal is to establish iPS cells as a novel source to treat diabetes reducing the management costs of diabetic patients.

Research Interest

Opportunities establishing new therapies using embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells