Rene Maehr, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Harvard University
Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
7 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge,
MA
02138
USA
p. 6174958556
· email
Rene Maehr, Ph.D. - Account Profile
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is the result of an autoimmune destruction of insulin producing, pancreatic beta cells. The events leading to the disease have usually occurred long before diagnosis and are based on complex interactions between genes and the environment. The currently available rodent models for type 1 diabetes can only represent a limited number of patients leaving open the question how many different types of T1D exist. Indeed, information gained from the few T1D rodent models have so far poorly translated to the clinic. We propose to model T1D by using key cell populations differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. To this end, my main research interest lies the generation of an autoimmune prone immune system from patient specific induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The long term goal is to recapitulate the disease in a patient specific manner and to identify novel treatment strategies.
Scientific Interests/Keywords
autoimmune diabetes, pluripotent stem cells, directed differentiation, disease modeling
Publications
| PubMedID | Citation |
|---|---|
| 19720998 | Maehr R, Chen S, Snitow M, Ludwig T, Yagasaki L, Goland R, Leibel RL, Melton DA. Generation of pluripotent stem cells from patients with type 1 diabetes. (2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A : |
| 19341624 | Borowiak M, Maehr R, Chen S, Chen AE, Tang W, Fox JL, Schreiber SL, Melton DA. Small molecules efficiently direct endodermal differentiation of mouse and human embryonic stem cells. () Cell Stem Cell 4: 348-58 |
| 19287398 | Chen S, Borowiak M, Fox JL, Maehr R, Osafune K, Davidow L, Lam K, Peng LF, Schreiber SL, Rubin LL, Melton D. A small molecule that directs differentiation of human ESCs into the pancreatic lineage. (2009) Nat Chem Biol 5: 258-65 |
| 18849973 | Huangfu D, Osafune K, Maehr R, Guo W, Eijkelenboom A, Chen S, Muhlestein W, Melton DA. Induction of pluripotent stem cells from primary human fibroblasts with only Oct4 and Sox2. (2008) Nat Biotechnol 26: 1269-75 |
| 18568017 | Huangfu D, Maehr R, Guo W, Eijkelenboom A, Snitow M, Chen AE, Melton DA. Induction of pluripotent stem cells by defined factors is greatly improved by small-molecule compounds. (2008) Nat Biotechnol 26: 795-7 |
| 18354483 | Westbrook TF, Hu G, Ang XL, Mulligan P, Pavlova NN, Liang A, Leng Y, Maehr R, Shi Y, Harper JW, Elledge SJ. SCFbeta-TRCP controls oncogenic transformation and neural differentiation through REST degradation. () Nature 452: 370-4 |
| 17491588 | Ryu KY, Maehr R, Gilchrist CA, Long MA, Bouley DM, Mueller B, Ploegh HL, Kopito RR. The mouse polyubiquitin gene UbC is essential for fetal liver development, cell-cycle progression and stress tolerance. (2007) EMBO J 26: 2693-706 |
| 16184198 | Maehr R, Mintern JD, Herman AE, Lennon-Dum??nil AM, Mathis D, Benoist C, Ploegh HL. Cathepsin L is essential for onset of autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice. (2005) J Clin Invest 115: 2934-43 |
| 15905550 | Maehr R, Hang HC, Mintern JD, Kim YM, Cuvillier A, Nishimura M, Yamada K, Shirahama-Noda K, Hara-Nishimura I, Ploegh HL. Asparagine endopeptidase is not essential for class II MHC antigen presentation but is required for processing of cathepsin L in mice. () J Immunol 174: 7066-74 |
| 15259020 | Maehr R, Kraus M, Ploegh HL. Mice deficient in invariant-chain and MHC class II exhibit a normal mature B2 cell compartment. () Eur J Immunol 34: 2230-6 |
| 12417635 | Fiebiger E, Maehr R, Villadangos J, Weber E, Erickson A, Bikoff E, Ploegh HL, Lennon-Dum??nil AM. Invariant chain controls the activity of extracellular cathepsin L. () J Exp Med 196: 1263-9 |
