Using stem cells and reprogramming to understand disease

Abstract

Kevin Eggan received his PhD in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in February 2003. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. Dr Eggan has devoted the last 7 years to performing stem cell research. He is currently leading a research group that is investigating the mechanisms regulating epigenetic reprogramming after somatic cell nuclear transfer and using nuclear transfer techniques to derive disease-specific human embryonic stem cell lines from diabetic and Parkinson’s disease patients. His accomplishments include cloning mice from olfactory sensory neurons, deriving embryonic germ cells and male gametes from embryonic stem cells and characterizing the abnormalities that sometimes arise as a result of nuclear transfer.