Science Introduction

Welcome to the Science section of the PurStem website. Here a description of the scientific activity of the project has been provided - each work-package leader has prepared a one-page description of the work of his/her work-package.

The PurStem work-packages are each dedicated to a particular research issue which is important to the project. These include

WP1 - the isolation and characterisation of MSCs and agreeing common processes for doing so.
WP2 - the identification of MSCs in vivo
WP3 - the identification of the surface receptome of the MSC, as the basis for a new way of identifying and isolating MSCs in a consistent manner
WP4 - the optimum culture environment for MSCs, with a particular emphasis on formulating the best serum-free culture media
WP5 - establishing the potency of MSCs 'in vivo', focusing on their osteogenic potential
WP6 - the identification of novel antibodies which help to identify MSCs. This builds on the receptome work of WP3
WP7 - the large-scale production of WP6's novel antibodies using germ-free chickens (the page for this section is expected to be published in October 2009)
WP8 - the application of GMP processes across PurStem, to expedite and facilitate the translation of our research into the clinical environment.

A set of relevant references for the scientific text is supplied after WP8.