View from the Resort at Squaw Creek. Not a bad place for a conference!{credit}Brooke LaFlamme{/credit}

I recently attended the joint Keystone Symposium “Stem Cells & Reprogramming” and “Engineering Cell Fate & Function” at the beautiful Resort at Squaw Creek. In addition to gorgeous weather, there was an amazing lineup of talks demonstrating the power and promise of stem cells and cell/tissue engineering. Here are just a few of the highlights from the meetings:

Keynote: Optogenetics

Karl Deisseroth from Stanford University kicked off the joint meeting with an overview of his lab’s research in optogenetics and how they’ve used the technology both to control and map neuronal networks in live animals or intact tissues. The Deisseroth lab has used optogenetics to better understand the neuronal architecture and genetic structure underlying complex behaviors, such as those associated with anxiety. In his talk, Prof. Deisseroth outlined how they are using optogenetic tools to target neuronal wiring using Boolean-like genetic systems to identify neurons expressing specific combinations of markers.

The second part of his talk focused on CLARITY, a method developed in the Deisseroth lab to allow for 3D imaging of neurons in intact tissues or whole brains. You can see some of the amazing videos generated with this technique here.

To learn more, you can find a list of Deisseroth lab publications here.

Stem cells and reprogramming in human disease modeling and treatment

There were a ton of talks (and posters) demonstrating the utility of stem cells and directed differentiation for human disease modeling and treatment development. I’ll only mention a few here, but all the talks were excellent. Continue reading →