Stem cell technology for regenerative medicine

Integrating transgenesis, pluripotency and animal chimerism for cell-based therapies

Our lab explores the feasibility of producing various cell types such as muscle stem cells within animal chimeras for potential use in treating muscle-related disorders. This method may offer a solution to the challenge of harvesting sufficient amount of myogenic stem cells from muscles of donors or cadavers, representing a major obstacle in cell-based therapy. For instance, we recently demonstrated that xenogeneic and therapeutically-competent mouse muscle stem cells can be propagated in rat-mouse chimeras, and can be harvested to treat muscular dystrophy external page (Lenardič et al, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2024). Looking ahead, this technology may allow scaling up production of human muscle stem cells within larger animals for broader therapeutic applications.