Summer 2012: Chondrogenic Disease Modeling: A Study of Signaling Across iPS and hESC derived Chondrocytes
By Michael Tassavor, Dr. Sara Patterson, and Dr. Caroline Dealy
I worked with Dr. Patterson and Dr. Dealy, the CEO of Chondrogenics, Inc. I studied signaling in stem cells and chondrocytes (which become cartilage), which was important in the company’s goal of using stem cells to regenerate cartilage in patients with osteoarthiritis. I worked with various stem cell lines and figured out some surprising things regarding some signalling pathways that we didn’t think would be active in stages of chondrocyte differentiation.