Reprogramming human skeletal muscle (re)generation: new strategies for disease modelling and cell therapy

Speaker: Dr Saverio Tedesco, Division of Biosciences and Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, UCL

Host: Pete Zammit

Abstract: The Tedesco lab focuses on the study of skeletal muscle stem cells and regeneration and on the development of novel experimental therapies for muscle disorders. The group is interested in understanding how skeletal muscle sustains tissue regeneration and how this process could be improved to develop therapies for incurable diseases such as muscular dystrophies. Their work pioneered the use of human artificial chromosomes and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for muscle gene and cell therapies (Tedesco et al., Sci Transl Med 2011 and 2012; Maffioletti & Gerli et al., Nat Protoc 2015; Benedetti et al., EMBO Mol Med 2018). Current research projects are also investigating the use of small molecules to improve muscle stem cell delivery (Gerli & Moyle et al., Stem Cell Reports 2019) and the application of iPS cell-derived myogenesis for complex neuromuscular disease modelling and tissue engineering (Maffioletti & Sarcar et al., Cell Reports 2018; Steele-Stallard et al., Front Physiol 2018). Recent advances in the aforementioned platforms will be discussed in this seminar. The overall goal of the Tedesco lab is the clinical translation of these novel regenerative strategies into therapies for muscle disorders.