Welcome to the Phinney Laboratory!

Our laboratory is focused on examining the basic biology of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and exploiting this information to develop potent and efficacious MSC-based therapies for a variety of disease indications.  Over a decade ago our laboratory was one of the first to catalogue the transcriptome of primary mouse and human MSCs via serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and interrogation of these databases identified a broad repertoire of proteins secreted by MSCs that contribute significantly to their tissue reparative properties.  Current research is focused on evaluating the function of anti-inflammatory factors expressed by MSCs and their capacity to ameliorate inflammation in animal models of acute lung injury.  SAGE also identified several signaling pathways that play critical roles in lineage specification and self-renewal of MSCs.  This information is being exploited to delineate how different functional attributes of MSCs are specified within populations at a molecular level.  This information can then be used to develop improved manufacturing methods that preserve MSC function following large-scale expansion for clinical therapy.  The laboratory is also exploring the potential of allogeneic MSC-based therapies by examining their allo-reactivity in vivo in non-human primates.  Most recently, the laboratory is also exploring miRNA regulation of stem cell fate as well as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) that play a critical early role in tumor metastasis. 

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