iBB

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells have unique properties favorable to their use in clinical practice and have been studied for cardiac repair. However, these cells are larger than coronary microvessels and there is controversy about the risk of embolization and microinfarctions, which could jeopardize the safety and efficacy of intracoronary route for their delivery. The index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) is an invasive method for quantitatively assessing the coronary microcirculation status. In a recent publication in PlosOne, BERG-iBB researchers in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Cardiology at Hospital de Santa Marta and from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at University of Lisbon have examined heart microcirculation in a swine model after intracoronary injection of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells with the index of microcirculatory resistance. Overall, the study provides definitive evidence of microcirculatory disruption upon intracoronary administration of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, in a large animal model closely resembling human cardiac physiology, function and anatomy.

Tiago Dias, Ph. D. student in Biotechnology, has been shortlisted to present an oral lecture in the Malcolm Lilly Award session at the ESBES symposium, Lille 7-10th September. This prestigeous award is offered by the ESBES to a promising young scientist  working in the field of biochemical engineering  to honor Professor Malcolm Lilly, the founding father of Biochemical Engineering, Tiago, one of the 4 candidates selected, will have an opportunity to present the work he has developed at BERG under the supervison of Joaquim Cabral and Margarida Diogo with a communication entitled "Integrated Platform for Derivation and Enrichment of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes: Towards a Clinical Application".

Platelet transfusion can be a life-saving procedure in different medical settings, but shelf-life of this plod product is only 5 days. The efficient ex vivobiomanufacturing of platelets would make it possible toovercome the shortages of donated platelets. The optimized protocol described by BERG researchers in a recent paper published in the journal Cythotherapy allows the efficient production of platelets and their progenitors from blood stem/progenitor cells by mimicking the bone marrow niche through a co-culture system with human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), in combination with different biological factors to prompt differentiation toward functional platelets. Click on title to learn more.

Photo details: SEM image from blood shwoing small disc-shaped platelets among other red and white blood cells. Bruce Wetzel, NCI, 1982, public domain. 

Professor Pedro Baptista, a specialist in the area of  of Regenerative Medicine will be giving a talk entitled "How to make a liver and other organs for Dummies" Friday the 19th June, at 11h00m, in Room QA1.2, IST (Alameda). Pedro Baptista is currently a Group Leader at the Aragon Health Sciences Institute (IACS) in Zaragoza, Spain and the founder of the Organ Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the Aragon Biomedical Research Institute, Zaragoza, Spain. The focus of his work is on intestinal organs bioengineering and cellular therapies directed to liver, pancreas and kidney regeneration. He will be hosted by Prof. Cláudia Lobato Silva from BERG-iBB.