Dr. Hans Clevers from the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research is a pioneer in the field, studying the molecular mechanisms of tissue development and cancer of various organs using organoids made from adult Lgr5 stem cells.

Dr. Sheila Chari is the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Cell Stem Cell, and Executive Editor at Cell Press. As the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Chari’s primary responsibilities are knowing and publishing the top stem cell discoveries, driving journal publishing strategy, and managing a global editorial staff.

Dr. Josef Penninger is from the University of British Columbia and the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria. He was previously on the podcast to talk about his research developing human blood vessel organoids. Dr. Penninger’s team has identified a trial drug that can significantly block early stages of COVID-19 in human blood vessel and kidney organoids.

Dr. Darcy Wagner from the Lund Stem Cell Center uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand how the extracellular environment directs stem cell behavior for endogenous and exogenous lung tissue regeneration.

Dr. Deepak Srivastava is the President of the Gladstone Institutes and the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and the co-founder of Tenaya Therapeutics. His lab investigates the gene networks that guide cardiogenesis by developing models of heart disease using patient-derived iPSCs and CRISPR technology.

Dr. Jeanne Loring is a Professor Emeritus and Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute, and the co-founder of Aspen Neuroscience. Her lab works on a diverse range of projects using iPSCs, including developing cell replacement therapies for Parkinson’s disease, sending neural organoids into space, and partnering with the San Diego zoo to make iPSCs from engangered species.

Dr. Joy Wu is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and a a board-certified endocrinologist.  With both basic and translational research, her lab studies stem cell therapies for bone formation and the prevention of cancer metastases to bone, as well as the bone marrow hematopoietic niche.

Dr. Thomas Reh is a Professor of Biological Structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His research is aimed at stimulating more effective regeneration in the retina to restore vision in people that have lost their sight.

Priye Iworima is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. Her project is focused on developing and optimizing a differentiation protocol for generating insulin-producing cells derived from stem cells that could be used as a potential therapy for type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Kacey Ronaldson-Bouchard is an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University focusing on biomedical engineering. She is also the co-founder of TARA Biosystems, which offers physiologically relevant human “heart-on-a-chip” tissue models for cardiac risk assessment and drug discovery applications.