Stem cell technology offers the promise of recreating, treating, and replacing diseased organs in the human body. With our research, we plan to use regenerative medicine to tackle critical diseases such as diabetes, heart failure, and liver failure.
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Diabetes
Insulin is an important hormone that regulates blood sugar levels in the human body. It is produced and stored in beta cells, located in the pancreas. These beta cells are destroyed in patients with type 1 diabetes, which ultimately leads to insulin dependence as well as major complications that are difficult to manage. We will create beta cells from stem cells, which holds great promise for cell replacement therapy in patients with diabetes.
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Heart Failure
Heart failure is growing in epidemic proportions, with about 50,000 new cases diagnosed in Canada each year. Because of the limited number of organs available for heart transplant, we are looking for alternative ways of treating this disease, such as heart regeneration.
Our goal is two-fold. Firstly, we aim to create models of heart failure and identify new medications. In a perfect scenario, we will be able to deliver a drug at the time of a heart attack that will coax the heart to regenerate. Secondly, we are looking for new strategies to treat the heart after heart attack by using stem cells to replace damaged heart cells.
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Liver Failure
Liver failure is a growing epidemic in Canada, with diseases such as fatty liver disease and liver cancer on the rise. There are no specific therapies for many liver diseases, which may lead to liver transplantation. We aim to use stem cells to recreate the cells that make up the liver. In so doing we will develop new treatments for liver disease, and ultimately find a way to recreate the liver outside the body to use for transplantation.