Han et al., Diabetes Metab J, 2013

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common and disabling complication of diabetes that may lead to foot ulcers and limb amputations. Despite widespread awareness of DN, the only effective treatments are glucose control and pain management. A growing body of evidence suggests that DN is characterized by reduction of vascularity in peripheral nerves and deficiency in neurotrophic and angiogenic factors. Previous studies have tried to introduce neurotrophic or angiogenic factors in the form of protein or gene for therapy, but the effect was not significant. Recent studies have shown that bone marrow (BM)-derived stem or progenitor cells have favorable effects on the repair of cardiovascular diseases.

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Min Young Sin, awarded with SIRE grant program for summer 2013.

  • 7:30PM Apr 11, 2013
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Another Yoon lab undergraduate volunteer, Min Young Sin, received Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory (SIRE) grant program for summer 2013. Min Young is currently a senior at Emory University and has been working at Yoon lab since her first year of college while planning to enter medical school. In addition, Min Young’s research proposal, […]

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Technology and innovation awardees for 2012

  • 2:40PM Apr 05, 2013
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The 7th annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation in March honored the following awardees: Innovation of 2012: Chemically-induced pluripotent stem cells (Young-sup Yoon, cardiology) Start-up of 2012: Clearside Biomedical (Henry Edelhauser, ophthalmology). Last month, Clearside received $7.9 million in venture capital. Read more. Deal of 2012: Neurotrak’s licensing of its web-based diagnostic for Alzheimer’s (Stuart […]

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Andukuri et al., Tissue Eng Part C Methods, 2013

  • 3:32PM Apr 02, 2013
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Endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)-capturing techniques have led to revolutionary strategies that can improve the performance of cardiovascular implant devices and engineered tissues by enhancing re-endothelialization and angiogenesis. However, these strategies are limited by controversies regarding the phenotypic identities of EPCs as well as their inability to target and prevent the other afflictions associated with current therapies, namely, thrombosis and neointimal hyperplasia. Therefore, the goal of this study was to study the efficacy of a bioinspired multifunctional nanomatrix in recruiting and promoting the

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Moon et al., Int J Cardiol, 2012

  • 3:32PM Apr 02, 2013
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Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) hold great promise for treating ischemic heart disease. However, current protocols for differentiating hPSCs either result in low yields or require expensive cytokines. Here we developed a novel two dimensional (2D) stepwise differentiation system that generates a high yield of cardiomyocytes (CMs) from hPSCs without using special cytokines. Initially, undifferentiated hPSCs were transferred onto Matrigel-coated plates without forming embryoid bodies (EBs) for a few days and were cultured in bFGF-depleted human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) medium. When linear cell aggregation

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Sohn et al., Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci, 2012

  • 3:31PM Apr 02, 2013
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The technology for generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) from somatic cells emerged to circumvent the ethical and immunological limitations of embryonic stem cell (ESC). The recent progress of iPSC technology offers an unprecedented tool for regenerative medicine; however, integrating viral-driven iPSCs prohibits clinical applications by their genetic alterations and tumorigenicity. Various approaches including nonintegrating, nonviral, and nongenetic methods have been developed for generating clinically compatible iPSCs. In addition, approaches for using more clinically convenient or compatible source

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Park et al., Trends Cardiovasc Med, 2011

  • 3:30PM Apr 02, 2013
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The lymphatic vasculature plays a pivotal role in maintaining tissue fluid homeostasis, immune surveillance, and lipid uptake in the gastrointestinal organs. Therefore, impaired function of the lymphatic vessels caused by genetic defects, infection, trauma, or surgery leads to the abnormal accrual of lymph fluid in the tissue and culminates in the swelling of affected tissues, known as lymphedema. Lymphedema causes impaired wound healing, compromised immune defense, and, in rare case, lymphangiosarcoma. Although millions of people suffer from lymphedema worldwide, no effective therapy is

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Lee and Yoon, Br J Pharmacol, 2012

  • 3:29PM Apr 02, 2013
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Cell-based therapy has emerged as a promising therapy for cardiovascular disease. Particularly bone marrow (BM)-derived cells have been most extensively investigated and shown encouraging results in preclinical studies. Clinical trials, however, have demonstrated split results in post-myocardial infarction (MI) cardiac repair. Mechanistically, transdifferentiation of BM-derived cells into cardiovascular tissue demonstrated by earlier studies is now known to play a minor role in functional recovery, and humoral and paracrine effects turned out to be main mechanisms responsible for tissue regeneration and functional

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Kim et al., Endocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets, 2012

  • 3:28PM Apr 02, 2013
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Diabetic neuropathy (DN), the most common complication of diabetes, frequently leads to foot ulcers and may progress to limb amputations. Despite continuous increase in incidence, there is no clinical therapy to effectively treat DN. Pathogenetically, DN is characterized by reduced vascularity in peripheral nerves and deficiency in angiogenic and neurotrophic factors. We will briefly review the pathogenetic mechanism of DN and address the effects and the mechanisms of cell therapies for DN. To reverse the changes of DN, studies have attempted to deliver neurotrophic or angiogenic factors for treatment in the form of protein or

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