iPS Differentiation to Epithelium/Progenitor Cells

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells may be the most effective strategy to develop respiratory epithelial cells that may be valuable in lung-related cell therapies. iPS cells can be derived from the patient to be treated and therefore they could provide a cell source that is genetically identical to the patient, allowing tissue generated from these cells to avoid immune rejection. We are trying to generate an efficient and consistent, step-wise differentiation method to generate definitive endoderm (DE), anterior foregut endoderm (AFE), and subsequently, a relatively homogeneous population of human alveolar and airway epithelial cells from human iPSCs. We are also developing a bioreactor culture system for scale up production of lung epithelial cells for human lung engineering and drug testing.