UBern Wins Poster Prize at TERMIS!

iPSpotlight – June 24, 2019

Work done by Dr. Daniela Frauchiger et al., from the lab of Prof. Dr. Benjamin Gantenbein’s at the University of Bern won a 2^nd place poster award at TERMIS-EU 2019 in Rhodes, Greece. TERMIS is a renown meeting where scientists from all over the world meet and share scientific findings to further the advances in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

The presented findings were related to their recently published work alongside supporting partners of the iPSpine consortium that compares cell sorting methods of disc progenitors (Tissue Engineering part C Methods, June 2019). According to this team’s findings, Fluorescent Associated Cell Sorting (FACS) was the best isolation method for sorting the tissue specific progenitor cells and led to the most potent and functional cell lines. The aim is to soon utilize this process for therapeutic purposes in humans.

Members of Prof. Gantenbein’s lab are working to build on these findings within the iPSpine consortium. Dr. Julien Guererro is working on a Standard Operational Protocol for the isolation of these cells for human discs. These cells can then be further studied and employed for the purposes of the iPSpine consortium. Institut National de la Sante et de lamRecherche Medicale Montpellier is playing a pivotal role by utilizing the findings to derive further GMP-grade specialized cells (induced pluripotent stem cells; iPSCs) from the disc progenitor cells.

These steps are all advancing the goals of iPSpine to develop an advanced therapy to soon ease the widespread health problems of people suffering from chronic low back pain, the most common cause of job-related disability and missed work.