The Stem Cell Podcast

Dr. Deepak Lamba, an assistant professor at the Buck Institute who pioneers making retinal cells from stem cells. He discusses lab methods to generate retinal cell types. He talks about translating dish-grown cells toward clinical safety and integration. He covers immune challenges in degenerating eyes and strategies to limit rejection and modulate inflammation.

Dr. Hongjun Song, director of the Johns Hopkins Stem Cell Program and neural stem cell researcher, discusses organoids and how they let scientists test causality in human brain development. He explains rapid, collaborative Zika research using stem-cell models, high-throughput drug screening, and how stem cells can model wider Zika impacts and potential therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Daylon James, assistant professor at Weill Cornell who studies stem cells for heart and reproductive disorders. He reviews the year’s big stories like Zika, iPSC progress, organoids, mitochondrial replacement, CRISPR therapies, and fertility preservation. Short, lively takes on advances, risks, and where stem cell research is heading.

Dr. Kevin Eggan, Harvard professor who models neurological disease, and Dr. Michael Wells, postdoc who built iPSC-derived organoid Zika models, discuss organoids used to probe how Zika infects developing brain tissue. They cover CRISPR knockouts like AXL, redundant entry pathways, innate immune roles, and whether Zika will become endemic or be controlled. Practical lab approaches and long-term risks are debated.

Dr. Jen Adair, a translational gene therapy researcher at Fred Hutch and UW, works on retrovirus-based gene transfer and clinical-scale manufacturing of gene-modified blood stem cells. She describes automating and miniaturizing stem cell processing into a portable, bedside gene therapy lab. The conversation covers scaling for global access, safety improvements in lentiviral vectors, and adapting the platform for CAR‑T and other cell therapies.

Dr. Alpa Mahuvakar Trivedi, a UCSF molecular biologist studying stem cell–derived neural cells for spinal cord injury, discusses generating inhibitory interneurons to relieve bladder dysfunction and neuropathic pain. She covers implantation sites, cell preparation and maturation, dose and safety in mice, and plans for GMP lines and larger preclinical studies.

Dr. Mark Post, a vascular physiology professor who built the world’s first lab-grown hamburger, walks through scaled cultured meat. He explains microcarriers, bioreactors, turning cells into fibers and making food-safe fat. They debate cost projections, environmental benefits, regulatory hurdles, and how this tech could reshape food systems and drive medical cell-culture advances.

Michael Halpern, deputy director at the Center for Science and Democracy who defends science in policy, discusses how elections shape research and the risks of political interference. He covers contested issues like climate policy, fetal tissue inquiries, and scientists facing harassment. Practical steps for scientists to engage with lawmakers and hold officials accountable are explored.

Dr. Stephen Duncan, a leading figure in regenerative medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina, explores the purification of cell lineages derived from pluripotent stem cells. He discusses the challenges of heterogeneity in iPSC differentiation and the significance of glycoproteomics in identifying hepatocyte-specific markers. Duncan also evaluates clinical applications for liver therapies, including innovative methods for scaling up cell purification and modeling rare diseases. His insights shed light on the future of liver regeneration and potential therapeutics.

Guest: Dr. Joshua Brickman from the University of Copenhagen discusses his work on stem cells and culture conditions. Professor Brickman’s and his group investigate the basis for transcriptional priming and commitment in embryonic stem cells and early in the specification of the endoderm lineage. Resources and Links Scientists Watch as Bacteria Evolve Antibiotic Resistance – A petri dish more than a meter long helped scientists visualize the evolution of antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria. Lyme Bacteria Swap ‘Catch Bonds’ to Navigate Blood Vessels – The corkscrew-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) attach themselves to the sides of blood vessels using special bonds that get stronger under stress. Maybe You Don’t Need to Burp Your Baby – This article reports that there’s scant scientific evidence that burping after meals actually does anything helpful for babies. Pigeons Can Read a Little Bit – Pigeons moved from learning to eat from a food hopper, to recognizing shapes, to learning words through gradual training. Lack of T Cell Response to iPSC-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells from HLA Homozygous Donors – Researchers established human retinal pigment epithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in HLA homozygote donors. Scientists Use Stem Cells to Grow 3D Lung-in-a-Dish – Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have succeeded in creating three-dimensional lung “organoids” by coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the air sacs found in human lungs. Motherless Babies Possible as Scientists Create Live Offspring without Need for Female Egg – This article shows that embryos could be created from cells which carry all their chromosomes leading to the theory that any cell in the human body could be fertilized by a sperm. Parkin and PINK1 Patient iPSC-Derived Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Exhibit Mitochondrial Dysfunction and α-Synuclein Accumulation – Researchers demonstrate that the identification of disease-related phenotypes in Parkinson’s disease–patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived midbrain dopamine neurons depends on the type of differentiation protocol utilized. Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Joshua Brickman Subscribe to our newsletter! Never miss updates about new episodes. Subscribe