Susan Kimber

Professor of Stem & Dvlpmntl Biology at Alliance Manchester Business School

Schools

  • Alliance Manchester Business School

Links

Biography

Alliance Manchester Business School

Overview

Our research focusses on how human embryo develop and use of human embryonic stem cells (hESc) and induced pluripotent stem cells to understnd human development, for use in clinical cell-based therpy and for modeling human gnetic diseases.  Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) can grow indefinitely in a dish while still retaining the ability to produce all the specialised cells in the body and hold great promise for cell therapy disease modeling and biopharma. 1) Work in our (HFEA-licenced) North West Embryonic Stem Cell Centre, in special clean culture rooms, concentrated on generating new hESc lines suitable for treating patients. We use these for a number of projects on human cell differention 2) Based on our novel highly efficient protocol to generate early stage chondrocytes from PSCs, we are working towards a new therapy for cartilage disease (e.g.osteoarthritis) employing PSC-derived chondrocytes and utilising our (HTA and MHRA licenced) clean rooms.  3) We investigate molecules in hPSCs which give them their special characteristics.  3) We are investigating the role of soluble and extracellular matrix derived secreted proteins in hPSCs. We have shown that particular extracellular matrix components and the cellular proteins they bind, are important in regulating stem cell properties and behaviour. 4) We have developed in vitro models for genetic diseases of the skeleton, the vasculature and the kidney. 5) We study regulation of the first few days of human embryo development and we also use the mouse as a model e.g. for placenta development.

Biography

Education

BA University of Cambridge
MA University of Cambridge
PhD University of Cambridge

Employment

AFRC Institute Babraham, Research Station: Postdoctoral Research assistant
MRC Experimental Embryology and Teratology Laboratory: Staff Scientist
University of Copenhagen: Senior Research Associate
University of Manchester: Lecturer/ Senior Lecturer/Reader/Professor

SJK is currently Professor of Stem Cells and Development in the Faculty of Life Sciences University of Manchester. Her first degree and PhD were obtained at the University of Cambridge UK where she became interested in specification of early cell fate decisions in the mammalian embryo. She has worked in London, Copenhagen and for the last >20 years in Manchester.

I have 30 years experience as a developmental biologist working on aspects of early mammalian development. I am also an established international expert on mammalian implantation with a research programme in this area since 1986 leading to over 40 papers. In the last 20 years, thirty of her > 100 papers address issues of establishment of the blastocyst and the inner cell mass (ICM) the source of embryonic stem cells as well as the first differentiation of the embryonic stem cell population to trophectoderm or later the primary embryonic precursor cells (germ layers) in both murine and human embryos. I am co-director of the North West Embryonic Stem Cell Centre (established 2006) jointly hosted by the Univeristy of Manchester (UoM), and Central Manchester NHS Trust (CMMCUHT)(http://www.nwescc.manchester.ac.uk/)..  The remit of the Centre (funded by NWDA and MRC) has been to establish human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines under clean room conditions suitable for therapeutic use and we have generated 17 lines, 7 of these at clinical grade. These lines are now banked in the UK Stem Cell Bank and being used by ourselves and a number of other labs to generate human differentiated cell types.

 

 I have supervised 39 postgraduate research students with 100% degree success and a series of postdoctoral researchers and fellows. I am part of the International Stem Cell Initiative and a past member of the MRC Stem Cell Liaison committee and RCOG/WellBeing Research Advisory Grant committee, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany)  Grant committee, Stem Cells for Safer Medicine Advisory Board; European Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine advisory panel; Royal Society of Medicine Academic Exchange grant committee and NC3Rs UK studentship grant funding committee and a current member of MRC Regenerative Medicine Grant  panel.

I direct the Univeristy of Manchester Clean Rooms for generation of cGMP grade cell products and   University DI for Human Tissue Authority licence for clinical application of human cells as well as Licence Holder for theHFEA licences R0026 for reseach on human embryos and R0171 for derivation of human embryonic stem cell lines. She was founding Chair of the Manchester Tissue Regeneration and Stem Cell Network (now merged into Manchester Regenerative Medicine Network [MaRM] for which she is a Board member) and co-Chair and founder of Mercia Stem Cell Alliance (http://www.msca.ls.manchester.ac.uk/) for promotion of excellence in stem cell science and translation across the north and midlands.

Read about executive education

Other experts

Neil Stott

Neil Stott is a Management Practice Professor of Social Innovation, director of the Master of Studies in Social Innovation Programme and Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation. Neil is a Fellow of the Inter University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and adjunct professor, F...

Looking for an expert?

Contact us and we'll find the best option for you.

Something went wrong. We're trying to fix this error.