Immunological Barriers to Regenerative Medicine (eBook)

This volume offers an analysis of the scale and nature of the immunological issues facing regenerative medicine, drawing on the expertise of laboratories around the world who have taken up the challenge of applying their expertise in immunology to the vagaries of stem cell biology. In Part I, we explore the extent to which the principles of allograft rejection, learned over several decades from our experiences of whole organ transplantation, apply within the unique context of cell replacement therapy. Part II discusses various innovative ways of addressing the issues of immunogenicity, while, in Part III, we focus exclusively on the induction of immunological tolerance through a variety of novel approaches. It is our hope that this systematic analysis of the current state of the field will galvanise efforts to solve an issue which has so far remained intractable.

Dr. Paul Fairchild began his research career in Oxford, where he studied for a doctorate within the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, where his research focused on the immune response to organ allografts.  After spending five years as a post-doctoral fellow investigating the etiology of autoimmune disease in the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, he returned to Oxford, where he is currently a University Lecturer in Pre-clinical Medicine within the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and a Fellow of Trinity College.  In 2008, Paul Fairchild founded the Oxford Stem Cell Institute (OSCI), for which he currently serves as Co-Director.  As a highly interdisciplinary organization, the OSCI focuses on exploiting the properties of stem cells for the treatment of some of the most intractable chronic and degenerative diseases.  It is within this context that he continues to apply his background in transplantation immunology, in order to investigate the nature of the immune response to tissues differentiated from pluripotent stem cells, and develop approaches to the induction and maintenance of immunological tolerance.

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This volume offers an analysis of the scale and nature of the immunological issues facing regenerative medicine, drawing on the expertise of laboratories around the world who have taken up the challenge of applying their expertise in immunology to the vagaries of stem cell biology. In Part I, we explore the extent to which the principles of allograft rejection, learned over several decades from our experiences of whole organ transplantation, apply within the unique context of cell replacement therapy. Part II discusses various innovative ways of addressing the issues of immunogenicity, while, in Part III, we focus exclusively on the induction of immunological tolerance through a variety of novel approaches. It is our hope that this systematic analysis of the current state of the field will galvanise efforts to solve an issue which has so far remained intractable.