About research group

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and maybe also induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are a promising source of cells for tissue engineering applications. Unfortunately, the risk of various pathogenic contaminations is considerable when animal derived components are used in cell culture. In addition, the use of animal derived materials in cell culture processes may cause serious problem of immunogenic reactions for the patient. For clinical applications a sustainable and economical means of producing stem cells in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-quality requirements and without substances of animal origin are needed. The group has several years developed novel GMP-quality culture methods for hESC without any source of animal components. In addition, group produce hESC lines used for research at IBT. New hESC lines are derived from surplus embryos that voluntary couples donate after infertility treatments and that would otherwise be discarded. Latest aim for the group is to develop novel stem cell based tissue engineering methods for the corneal and retinal repair through cell transplantation. Severe ophthalmologic disease like age-related macular degeneration decreases quality of life of the patients and the prevalence of retinal diseases will dramatically increase due to the increasing proportion of elderly people. Currently effective means for restoration or prevention of diseases are lacking and one of the most promising means to treat the visual disturbances is by replacement of the most critical cell types and/or restoration of their function by means of cell transplantation. Human pluripotent stem cells with their tremendous differentiation capacity are an important tool for regenerative medicine as well as for drug discovery. However, new approaches to gain sufficient amount of differentiated functional cells are needed.

Our research is funded by Tekes, the Academy of Finland, the Competitive Research Funding of the Pirkanmaa Hospital District, The Finnish Culture foundation, the University of Tampere/ TGSBB graduate school, two private donations, Sokeain ystävät foundation and Evald and Hilda Nissin foundation.