Eggan Addresses Stem Cell Uses

Stem cell research usually makes news when scientists use it to grow something. Take, for example, this week’s story about the successful transplantation of a windpipe grown from stem cells.

But while transplantation is “a very exciting application of stem cells,” it is not a solution for many diseases, as stem cell and regenerative biology professor Kevin Eggan said in a talk last night, titled “Using Stem Cells and Reprogramming to Model Neural Degeneration.” For example, he said it is difficult to imagine growing a new forebrain in the case of Alzheimer’s Disease, which is effectively what would need to be done to cure it.

Stem cell research can be applied to better understand the biological progression of many more complicated diseases, Eggan said in a Sever Hall presentation. He focused on his own research, examining the pathology of spinal muscular atrophy.

According to Eggan, “by the time people are sick, a lot of the disease process is already over.” For example, 80 to 90 percent of the relevant brain cells in Parkinson’s Disease have died before the patient begins to exhibit severe symptoms. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the full progression of a disease, especially in its early stages to find a cure.

“We can use stem cells as sort of flight recorders for disease,” Eggan said. “The black box helped us understand how planes crash,” he said. “We can make stem cells that have the disease genes and use them to play the disease over and over.”

Because of the ease with which stem cells can be reproduced, they can also be easily used to test the effectiveness of certain drugs.

Eggan’s lecture was part of the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Society’s monthly seminar series.

“It is a great way of introducing undergraduates to the amazing research that the Harvard faculty does, and a great way for the faculty to interact with students,” said Dayan “Jack” Li ’11 of HCURA.

“Stem cell research is a burgeoning field in science. It’s new, it’s really exciting, it has many implications,” Li said. “What he talked about today—the process of using stem cell techniques to cure diseases—is a way of bridging basic science research to clinical applications.”

Eggan’s talk about the important clinical applications of stem cell research comes at a time when Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology is likely to be approved by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as a new life science concentration at the College.

“It’ll be a great opportunity for undergraduates to explore a breadth of ideas and issues in biology” from a different perspective, Eggan said.