Dr. Peter Zandstra
Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical Genetics
Director, School of Biomedical Engineering
Director, Michael Smith Laboratories
Current Research Focus
The Zandstra lab is interested in how individual cells form complex tissues and organs. His research focuses on understanding multiscale interactions between cells, and the influence of these interactions on internal regulatory control networks, and the external microenvironment that shapes cell fate and functional tissue development. His team is developing mathematical models of interactions between cellular regulatory networks and their local microenvironment, and using model predictions to guide the design of engineered niches and synthetic cells that detect, select and control functional tissue development from adult and pluripotent stem cells. These discoveries will elucidate the process of multicellular organization into complex functional tissues and enable production of therapeutically relevant cell types, with a particular focus on the blood cell forming system.
Example Project
“Engineering Stem Cell Fate and Function”
Regenerative medicine (RM) offers an opportunity to address the root causes of chronic diseases, which typically result from the breakdown of tissues maintained by stem cells (SC). In Canada, chronic disease consumes 67% of direct health care costs, with approximately $68 billion attributable to treatment costs. Canada is a leader in SC-based RM and my group has contributed to discovery and innovation in this sector. Early RM technologies focused on the transplantation of cells from the same individual. RM is now at a stage where cell products, such as blood SC, are manufactured for clinical testing. My proposed program is building the next generation of RM therapeutics - living cells and tissues designed to treat specific indications. My vision is to understand, at a fundamental level, the mechanisms by which complex tissues develop from SC, and to use this understanding to advance new cell therapies and regenerative medicines. Our work will reveal new rules that govern tissue development, generate new technologies for RM applications, and yield new SC-based therapies.
Research Keywords
Biotechnology, Biological Imaging, Genomics, Immunology, Bioengineering, Personalized Medicine, Synthetic Biology, Computational Modeling, Gene/Cell Therapy Systems, Regenerative Medicine
