Cambridge Stem Cell Institute

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Cambridge Stem Cell Institute
CSCI logo - colour 2025.png
Established2012
Affiliation University of Cambridge
DirectorProfessor Berthold Göttgens
Total staff
400
Students100
Address
Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre, Puddicombe Way, CB2 0AW
,
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Website www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk

The Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) at the University of Cambridge is a research centre specializing in the nature and potential medical uses of stem cells. It is located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England and was originally funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. The Institute is part of the School of Clinical Medicine and the School of Biological Sciences at the university.

Contents

In addition to research, the Institute also offers higher education opportunities to train the next generation of clinical and nonclinical stem cell scientists. CSCI's postgraduate program offers: a PhD in Stem Cell Biology, a Master’s degree (MPhil) in Stem Cell Medicine, and a Master’s degree (MPhil) in Biological Science. [1]

Research

Researchers at the Institute study stem cell behaviour to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Research is focused around three key themes:

Notable research from CSCI scientists includes:

History

The Institute was founded as a research centre in 2012 created by Professor Roger Pedersen and Professor Austin Smith, who jointly received funding from the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council. The centre was composed of researchers across the University of Cambridge working in separate labs and departments, all united in their work with stem cells.

In 2019, the disparate research groups were brought together under one roof in the purpose-built Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC), named after entrepreneur and philanthropist Jeffrey Cheah. The JCBC is located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe.

In 2024, CSCI was awarded funding from the Wellcome Trust for a Discovery Research Platform for Tissue Scale Biology. [18]

Directorship

Faculty and alumni

The Institute has around 30 research groups led by Principal Investigators studying stem cells in fields such as neurobiology, haematology, cardiology, musculoskeletal systems, and more. CSCI also has a network of around 40 affiliated research groups who work closely with researchers at the Institute.

Notable CSCI researchers and alumni

References

  1. Jack, Jo (6 December 2018). "Students". www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  2. Brierley, Craig (20 November 2024). "Cartographers of the human body: the Human Cell Atlas". www.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  3. "The Human Cell Atlas: towards a first draft atlas". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  4. Brierley, Craig (11 June 2024). "Lab-grown 'mini-guts' could change how we treat Crohn's disease". www.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  5. Dennison, Thomas W.; Edgar, Rachel D.; Payne, Felicity; Nayak, Komal M.; Ross, Alexander D. B.; Cenier, Aurelie; Glemas, Claire; Giachero, Federica; Foster, April R.; Harris, Rebecca; Kraiczy, Judith; Salvestrini, Camilla; Stavrou, Georgia; Torrente, Franco; Brook, Kimberley (1 September 2024). "Patient-derived organoid biobank identifies epigenetic dysregulation of intestinal epithelial MHC-I as a novel mechanism in severe Crohn's Disease". Gut. 73 (9): 1464–1477. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332043. ISSN   0017-5749. PMC   11347221 . PMID   38857990.
  6. "'Exhausted' immune cells in healthy women could be target for breast cancer prevention". University of Cambridge. 28 March 2024. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  7. Reed, Austin D.; Pensa, Sara; Steif, Adi; Stenning, Jack; Kunz, Daniel J.; Porter, Linsey J.; Hua, Kui; He, Peng; Twigger, Alecia-Jane; Siu, Abigail J. Q.; Kania, Katarzyna; Barrow-McGee, Rachel; Goulding, Iain; Gomm, Jennifer J.; Speirs, Valerie (April 2024). "A single-cell atlas enables mapping of homeostatic cellular shifts in the adult human breast". Nature Genetics. 56 (4): 652–662. doi:10.1038/s41588-024-01688-9. hdl: 2164/23344 . ISSN   1546-1718. PMC   11018528 .
  8. "Clinical trial for new stem cell-based treatment for Parkinson's disease given go ahead". University of Cambridge. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  9. Barker, Prof Roger (23 May 2023). An Open Label Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Neural Allo-Transplantation With Fetal Ventral Mesencephalic Tissue in Patients With Parkinson's Disease (Report). clinicaltrials.gov.
  10. "New way to extend 'shelf life' of blood stem cells will improve gene therapy". University of Cambridge. 15 August 2024. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  11. Johnson, Carys S.; Williams, Matthew; Sham, Kendig; Belluschi, Serena; Ma, Wenjuan; Wang, Xiaonan; Lau, Winnie W. Y.; Kaufmann, Kerstin B.; Krivdova, Gabriela; Calderbank, Emily F.; Mende, Nicole; McLeod, Jessica; Mantica, Giovanna; Li, Juan; Grey-Wilson, Charlotte (15 August 2024). "Adaptation to ex vivoculture reduces human hematopoietic stem cell activity independently of the cell cycle". Blood. 144 (7): 729–741. doi:10.1182/blood.2023021426. ISSN   0006-4971. PMC   7616366 .
  12. "First ever clinical trial of lab-grown red blood cell transfusion". University of Cambridge. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  13. Twilley, Nicola (3 February 2025). "The Long Quest for Artificial Blood". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  14. "Patching up a broken heart". University of Cambridge. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  15. Brierley, Craig (20 September 2023). "Developing 'kinder' treatments for a devastating childhood cancer". www.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  16. "Lab-grown 'mini-bile ducts' used to repair human livers in regenerative medicine first". University of Cambridge. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  17. Sampaziotis, Fotios; Muraro, Daniele; Tysoe, Olivia C.; Sawiak, Stephen; Beach, Timothy E.; Godfrey, Edmund M.; Upponi, Sara S.; Brevini, Teresa; Wesley, Brandon T.; Garcia-Bernardo, Jose; Mahbubani, Krishnaa; Canu, Giovanni; Gieseck, Richard; Berntsen, Natalie L.; Mulcahy, Victoria L. (19 February 2021). "Cholangiocyte organoids can repair bile ducts after transplantation in the human liver". Science. 371 (6531): 839–846. doi:10.1126/science.aaz6964. ISSN   1095-9203. PMC   7610478 . PMID   33602855.
  18. "Wellcome awards Cambridge £18 million for two Discovery Research Platforms". University of Cambridge. 4 May 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2025.