Embryology and iPSC pluripotency group

The research asks the question: How can we regenerate our old and damaged bodies using stem cell technology?  

The mission is to develop advanced cell therapies to treat human disease. Medicine has not brought yet the cures of many major pathological conditions. The discovery of the method to reprogram somatic cells and “re-wind the clock” to fully pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) by Yamanaka in 2007 has revolutionized our ability to study human disease and as well in the near future to treat it with a new class of advanced cell products. 

• Overcoming challenges of iPSC: To overcome the challenge of genetic instability and threat of cancer of iPSC derived cells for more accurate disease modelling and transplantation in humans, we improved the method to generate iPSC, that normally uses 4 “reprogramming” genes (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc) by replacing c-Myc with Cyclin D1 to improve genetic stability of iPSC and NSC (Genes and Development 2010; Stem Cells 2019 and 2021). Cyclin D1 repairs DNA breaks that occur during the brutal reprogramming process to iPSC by homologous recombination, improving genetic stability footprint in iPSC and NSC (Stem Cells 20121). Armed with better quality synthetic mRNA transfection methods to make iPSC has given rise to potential new patient specific cell replacement therapies.

• Applications of iPSC: Using our new advanced iPSC to generate  

1. type II lung stem cells (AECII),  

2. limbal stem cells (LSC) and  

3. neural stem cells (NSC) and  

4. transplanted in respective animal models (Lung: Bleomycin rat model; Cornea: Limbal chemical burn in rats; and spinal cord injury rat model) to show regeneration of tissue and no pathology from transplanted cells (JCI Insights, 2023; Int J Mol Sci. 2021; Stem Cells. 2021; Stem Cell Res Ther. 2020; J Clin Med. 2019).  

• The research aims to model human disease using iPSC and to bring iPSC technology forward to the clinic to build the foundation of a new type of toolbox. This will enable basic researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies to advance their basic science approaches, therapeutic strategies, and drug screenings for human disease.  

• These projects involve international collaboration with senior researchers at the Institute Barraquer to generate limbal eye stem cells to treat ocular surface damage in patients and as Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (Merton College, 2018-2019) on modelling cardiac disease with iPSC (Philosophical Transactions Biology. 2022).  

• Collaboration with Dr. Manel Juan from Hospital Clinic to develop CAR-T cell therapy to treat lymphoma (Front Immunol. 2023). I have over ten years’ experience leading a group of six staff/students on multiple research projects to study neural regeneration as well as other eye, cardiac and lung diseases.  

• Supported by Caixa Impulse and have collaborations in industry to search for new cell-based therapy applications with 2 patents. 

To develop advanced cell therapies to treat human disease. Medicine has not brought yet the cures of many major pathological conditions. The discovery of the method to reprogram somatic cells and “re-wind the clock” to fully pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) by Yamanaka in 2007 has revolutionized our ability to study human disease and as well in the near future to treat it with a new class of advanced cell products.