Regenerative Cellular Therapies, Physiology, Pathology and Developmental Biology

A Study Utilising Tissue From Deceased Organ Donors to Investigate Regenerative Cellular Therapies and Related Physiological and Developmental Processes

This study aims to use tissue from deceased organ donors to investigate organ physiology, developmental biology, as well as the development of future regenerative cellular therapies. It will investigate function and immune response to stem cells as well as their generation from adult cells and generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

The purpose of this study is to use tissue from deceased organ donors to address questions that are of importance for the development of regenerative cellular therapies for better understanding of organ physiology and developmental biology. This study aims to maximise the clinically available data as well as patient benefit that can be generated from donated tissue. It also aims to reduce number of consent forms given to patients by consolidating and coordinating a number of related investigations.

The study aims are:

• To examine function and the immune response to stem cells and their differentiated progeny as well as development of immunomodulatory approaches to prevent their rejection.
• Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their subsequent differentiation into functional cells as potential therapies.
• Generation of differentiated cells from native adult stem cells as cellular therapies.
• Investigation of organ physiology.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All deceased organ donors with informed consent from the donor family

Exclusion Criteria:

• Donors aged <16