Denham Lab

The Denham lab is interested in understanding how the human nervous system develops. We use human pluripotent stem cells to study the early differentiation events involved in cell fate choices. In particular, we are interested in how extrinsic signalling events alter the expression of master transcription factors and how these transcription factors cooperate to control cell fate.

Our aim is to develop better method for generating mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells that can be used in cell transplantation therapies for Parkinson’s disease patients.

Current projects: Lineage-Restricted Undifferentiated Stem Cells.

We genetically modified human pluripotent stem cells to create a novel type of stem cell called lineage-restricted undifferentiated stem cells that are prevented from differentiating down a large range of non-dopaminergic lineages. These LR-USCs efficiently generate mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons under a broad range of differentiation conditions. This efficient and robust approach at generating dopaminergic neurons, makes them idea for large-scale production. Our goal is to translate this technology into a cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease patients. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.28.462222