CSI: Cell science investigators
By the end of this lesson, you should…
 Know how stem cell research is useful for medicine
 Know about a disease that stem cells might help
 Know what stem cell therapies are available now
What we’re going to do today
1. Learn about the disease multiple sclerosis (MS)
2. In groups:
- Research what goes wrong in MS
- Do an experiment to look for new medicines
3. Hear about some stem cell therapies
A reminder about stem cells
?
How can stem cells help with diseases?
Study the cells
to learn more
about MS
Find or test
new medicines
Grow and multiply
stem cells in the lab
Make lots of specialized
cells
Put new cells
into patients?
What is multiple sclerosis?
Pins and needles
Blurred vision
Hearing problems
Fatigue
(Tiredness)
Dizziness
Problems walking
Forgetfulness
Mood swings
What is multiple sclerosis?
Who?



Why?

Treatments



Over 400,000 people in the European Union
10,500 people in Scotland
Usually starts at about 20 or 30 years old
No-one knows the cause
Not passed on from parents to children
Medicines to help with symptoms
No cure
What does a nerve cell do?
Signals travel fast!
Some of your nerves carry signals
at 70 to 100 metres per second
That’s as fast as a race car.
And more than 100 times faster
than you can pass a message along
a line!
A healthy nerve cell
Myelin
Nerve fibre (axon)
(insulation)
carries messages
Signal
What goes wrong in MS?
Your research challenge
Find out what goes wrong with nerves in MS:
•Look at the diagrams
•Write down what has gone wrong with
some of the nerves
•Look at the real nerves. Have they got MS?
Healthy nerve
What goes wrong in MS?
✔
Healthy nerve
Damaged myelin
Poor insulation
✗
Messages slow
down or get lost
How can stem cells help with MS?
The problem
Remember…
+
Damaged nerves
How can stem cells help with MS?
Study the cells
to learn more
about MS
Find or test
new medicines
Grow stem cells
in the lab
Make lots of nerve cells
to study and test
Where can we get the stem cells from?
Put new cells
into patients?
There are stem cells in our bodies
surface of the eye
brain and
nervous system
skin
muscles
Any volunteers?
intestines (gut)
bone marrow
Embyronic stem cells can make any cells
skin
embryonic stem cells
nerve
muscle
How can we make nerve cells?
?
?
Get embryonic
stem cells
Grow many
stem cells
?
Change them into
nerve stem cells
Many nerve cells
to study and test
So we can make nerve cells: what next?
Study the cells
to learn more
about MS
Find or test
new medicines
Grow stem cells
in the lab
Make lots of nerve cells
to study and test
Put new cells
into patients?
Using cells to look for new medicines
Your research challenge
•Plan a drug screening experiment
•Make sure it is a fair test
Substances to test
+
•Carry out your experiment
•Record your results
Which substance might be a useful
medicine?
Cell samples
Choose one to go for more research
Results
Test substance Colour of cells after adding
A
Blue/green
B
Purple (no change)
C
Green
D
Red
E
Blue/Green
Water
Purple (no change)
D should go for
further research
Making cells for patients
Study the cells
to learn more
about MS
Find or test
new medicines
Grow stem cells
in the lab
Make lots of nerve cells
to study and test
Put new cells
into patients?
Cell therapies today
Bone marrow transplants
for blood diseases
Skin grafts
for very bad burns
Grow a new cornea
for damaged eyes
What we’ve learnt today
3 ways to use stem cells
Study and
understand
New
medicines
Cells for patients?
Treating diseases today
No treatments for
MS from stem cell
research yet
Stem cells can treat:
•Blood diseases
•Burns
•Some eye damage
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Acknowledgements and licensing
Funders: The development of CSI: Cell science investigators was funded by the
European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme through EuroStemCell.
Authors: CSI: Cell science investigators was created and developed by Emma Kemp and
Ian Chambers, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh.
Acknowledgements: Shona Reid, her colleagues and students at the James Young High
School, Livingston, Scotland, participated in pilots and offered helpful advice and feedback.
Gianvito Martino of the Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan reviewed
information on the slides about multiple sclerosis.
Picture credits: Details provided on the following slide.
Licensing: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171
Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA
Picture credits
• Slide 6: ear by David Benbennick; sight chart by EuroStemCell; all other images courtesy of the
Multiple Sclerosis Society
• Slide 7: silhouette of head by Hannes Grobe
• Slide 8: line of people ©iStockphoto.com/danleap
• Slide 9: car by M. Trischler
• Slide 17: cell images by Dr Steve Pollard of UCL Cancer Institute, London
• Slide 22: blood cells by Anne Weston/Wellcome Images; skin graft from Yann Barrandon, previously
published in Ronfard et al., TRANSPLANTATION 2000; eye repair photograph reproduced with
permission from Massachusetts Medical Society and taken from Rama et al, Limbal Stem-Cell
Therapy and Long-Term Corneal Regeneration, N Engl J Med, 2010, 363:147-55, doi:
10.1056/NEJMoa0905955
• Slide 23: nerve image reproduced with permission from Bruce D. Trapp, Ph.D., John Peterson, B.S.,
Richard M. Ransohoff, M.D., Richard Rudick, M.D., Sverre Mörk, M.D., Ph.D., and Lars Bö, M.D.
Axonal Transection in the Lesions of Multiple Sclerosis, N Engl J Med 1998; 338:278-285:
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/338/5/
• Cartoon diagrams throughout: created by Christele Gonneau and Emma Kemp.
Images used in other components of CSI: Cell science investigators are accredited where the image
appears.