FIVM Seminar Series presents: Dynamic pluripotent stem cell states and their applications

Pluripotency, the ability to generate any cell type of the body, is an evanescent attribute of embryonic cells. Provided with the right combination of factors promoting self-renewal while shielding them from differentiation, transitory pluripotent epiblast cells in vivo can be propagated indefinitely in culture as pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). The derivation of PSCs from several species, including humans, has revolutionized developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

On Friday, October 21, Dr. Jun Wu will share his lab’s recent progress on the derivation of embryonic stem cells from large domestic mammals, interspecies chimeras and xenogeneic (i.e., other species) barriers, and the generation of blastocyst-like structures from cultured stem cells. His lab mainly focuses on using PSC models to gain novel insights in development and develop translational applications.

Dr. Jun Wu joined the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as an assistant professor in 2018. He obtained his PhD in Life Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on centrosome cycle regulation. His postdoctoral work focused on stem cell biology and genome editing at University of Southern California and the Salk Institute.

Dr. Wu’s work has contributed to the development of novel culture systems and methods that enable the generation of new stem cells for basic and translational studies. Dr. Wu has expanded the spectrum of pluripotent states by capturing mouse pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) with distinct molecular and phenotypic features from different developmental stages. Some of these culture conditions developed in mice have enabled the generation of PSCs from many other mammalian species, including humans, non-human primates, and ungulates. In addition, Dr. Wu has developed an efficient and versatile blastocyst complementation system for in vivo generation of functional tissues and organs from cultured PSCs, and several stem cell derived blastocyst models (blastoids).

Dr. Wu has received several awards including UT Southwestern endowed scholar, CPRIT scholar and NYSCF-Robertson Stem Cell Investigator award.