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Stem Cells in Research and Therapy

The health status of an individual is to a large extent determined by the inherited genetic blueprint encoded in DNA. Subtle differences in genes coding for individual proteins among different individuals are responsible for the predisposition to develop specific diseases including atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, and mental illness. Dr. Rossant pioneered the technique of introducing targeted mutations into genes in mouse embryos leading to the generation of adult mice that carry identified mutations in specific genes. In some cases, these mice develop diseases similar to those seen in humans, linking the disease to a mutation in a specific gene. These mice can be inbred to establish a mouse model for the disease to study its progression and the effectiveness of various drugs for its treatment. Dr. Rossant's interest in following the progression of mouse development from embryo to adulthood has led her to study stem cells from which individual tissues are derived during development. It is anticipated that, in the future, stem cells will be effectively injected into damaged tissues to regenerate these tissues for treatment of a wide spectrum of human disease including paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, myocardial infarction, immunodeficiency, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Dr. Rossant has the distinction of being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London and of being elected in 2008 as a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of USA.

A dividing fertilized mouse egg