Dr Paul Fairchild, University of Oxford / Professor Yair Reisner, Weizmann Institute of Science
One of the major challenges in stem cell therapy is managing immune responses and transplant rejection as the body sees the stem cells of another individual as foreign and will try to destroy them.
The Fairchild (University of Oxford) and Reisner (Weizmann Institute of Science) labs are working together to investigate the molecular and cellular basis of self-generated stem cells rejection. Their final goal is to exploit the properties of stem cells causing tissue rejection and identify those capable of inducing a state of immunological ‘truce’ or tolerance, enabling the long-term survival of the transplanted tissues.
About the Researchers
Dr Paul Fairchild was a PhD student at University of Oxford and a Post – doctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is the founding Director of the Oxford Stem Cell Institute. The Oxford Stem Cell Institute links more than 40 research groups in 17 different departments in a network of excellence that fosters communication and collaborative projects.
Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science
Dr Yair Reisner is Head of the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science at the Weizmann Institute where he was a PhD student. He was post-doctoral fellow at Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. Between 2005 – 2007, Dr Reisner was President of the Israel Stem Cell Society.
In 2014, Yair Reisner was awarded the Rapaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research.
“This collaboration will bring together our long term interest in regenerative medicine with world leading expertise in the field of immunology to better understand the properties of dendritic cells differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells and investigate their potential use for various clinical applications”
Dr Paul Fairchild