It was after her doctoral studies that Dr. Fossati's fight against MS became personal. She was diagnosed with the disease in 2008 when, as she puts it, "I woke up one morning and my leg didn't wake up with me."
Her diagnosis gives her a unique perspective on the disease as both a patient and a scientific expert, and has only strengthened her resolve to make strides on treatments for herself and fellow patients.
MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. The disease causes damage to the myelin sheath, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. When the nerve covering is damaged, nerve signals slow down or stop. As a result, people with MS have difficulty with movement as well as other symptoms.
In a healthy brain, cells called oligodendrocytes help carry electrical signals to other parts of the brain and body to control movement, the heartbeat, breathing, and other physical impulses. In MS patients, oligodendrocytes are damaged by the disease and fail to conduct these electrical signals properly, which can affect motor control and the nervous system. Currently, there is no known cure for the disease.
It is unknown what exactly causes MS. The most common thought is that a virus or gene defect, or both, are the cause. Environmental factors may also play a role.
"The best way to study MS and test possible new treatments is with live, human diseased brain cells," says Dr. Fossati. "Studies in animals really don't translate to humans, because animals aren't known to get MS naturally. The difficulty of studying MS in humans is that you can't remove diseased brain cells from someone who is still living, and brain cells from someone who has died aren't as viable for research."
So Dr. Fossati is doing the next best thing – creating a live, human model of the disease in the laboratory. To do this, she is using skin cells from patients with MS and reprogramming them to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are capable of becoming every cell type in the body. Through a process known as differentiation, she then manipulates the cells to become neural (brain) cells that have MS.
"By creating a model of oligodendrocytes and neurons using stem cells and then reproducing the stressors of the disease, I hope to create a window into the brain to observe how MS attacks the oligodendrocyctes that carry electrical impulses from one neuron to the next. My ultimate goal is to find more effective treatments to stop and reverse the damage of this disease."
Dr. Fossati's interest in the promise of stem cells brought her to the U.S. after she received her PhD in Italy, where regulations there would have made her work with embryonic stem cells (hESCs) difficult. After post-doctoral work at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Fossati received the NYSCF – Druckenmiller Fellowship that began her work with The New York Stem Cell Foundation, where she has conducted her research since 2009. She is currently a NYSCF-Helmsley Investigator.
Winter Research Update
In the November 6th issue of Nature, Jae-won Shim, PhD, a NYSCF - Druckenmiller Fellow in Dr. Lorenz Studer's laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, detailed a potential new method for transforming stem cells into dopamine-producing neurons for Parkinson's treatment.
In the October 28th issue of Cell, Bi-Sen Ding, PhD, a NYSCF - Druckenmiller Fellow in Dr. Shahin Rafii's laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College, presented the discovery of signals that "turn on" regeneration of oxygen-exchanging sacs in the lungs.
In the October issue of Cell Stem Cell, Marius Wernig, MD, PhD, a NYSCF - Robertson Investigator at Stanford University, reported on the successful transformation of mature liver cells from laboratory mice into functioning neurons.
In the November issue of Nature Methods, a team led by Paul Tesar, PhD, a NYSCF - Robertson Investigator at Case Western Reserve University, published a novel method in producing oligodendrocyte cells, the cells that are damaged in myelin-related disorders such as multiple sclerosis.
NYSCF - Robertson Investigator, Dr. Paul Tesar of Case Western Reserve University, published in Nature Methods today that they have succesfully produced the myelinating cells that die in multiple scerlosis and many other diseases. This is a step forward in finding treatments for many debilitating diseases.
Marco Seandel, MD, PhD, was named a NYSCF - Druckenmiller Fellow in 2008 and is in his third year of the NYSCF Fellowship Program. He was recently appointed to Assistant Professor of Cellular and Developmental Biology. On August, 6th, 2010, Marco's co-authored paper on stem cells of the testicles was published in Cell. Read an interview with Marco and learn about his research and how he became a scientist.
NYSCF Fellow Dr. Christopher Fasano recently published a paper in which he was able to create floor plate tissue from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). This is the first study shown to derive floor plate tissue from hESCs. Read an interview with Chris here.
