Stem Cell-based Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases

This book reviews the state-of-the-art in stem-cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, and highlights advances in both animal models and clinical trials. It comprehensively discusses most neurodegenerative diseases, including such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, amyotrophic sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and retinal degeneration, in which stem cells could potentially be used for therapy in the future. It also addresses the challenges and problems relating to the translation of stem-cell-based therapies into treatments. As such, the book will appeal to research scientists, physicians, graduate students, and medical professionals in the field of stem cells, neuroscience, neurology, neurorestoratology and major neurological disorders.

Author Biography

Dr. Fabin Han is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine, Affiliated Liaocheng Hospital/ Liaocheng University, China. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Second affiliated hospital of Shandong University and Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China. He holds MD and MPH degrees from the School of Medicine and School of Public Health, Shandong University, China. He received his PhD in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Texas A & M University, USA and as a research scientist in stem cell research programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. He is currently working on generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions in order to study the molecular mechanisms and iPS cell-based therapies for these diseases.  He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed research papers in journals such as Stem Cells, Cytotherapy, Oncotarget, Cell Transplantation, Neurology, Movement Disorders, the Journal of Human Genetics, and Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. He is a member of International Stem Cell Research, the American Society of Human Genetics, and the Society for Neuroscience. He is also a reviewer for Cytotherapy, Oncotarget, Cell Transplantation, Scientific Reports, the Journal of Cell Physiology and the Journal of Neurorestoratology.

Paul Lu, Ph.D.

Biography: Dr. Paul Lu is a Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, USA, and a research scientist at VA-San Diego Healthcare System, USA. Dr. Lu holds Bachelor of Master of Science degrees from Beijing Normal University, China, and Beijing University, China, respectively. He also holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, USA, and worked as a post-doctoralfellow at University of California, San Diego. Dr. Lu’s primary research focuses on gene therapy and innovative ways to use neural stem cells (NSCs) to remediate spinal cord injury (SCI) and other neurological diseases and disorders by re-construction or re-connection of neural circuits in the central nervous system. Dr. Lu has published more than 60 peer-reviewed research articles, several of them in high profile journals, such as Cell, Nature, Nature Medicine, Neurons, Science Translational Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Lu is also a reviewer for several scientific journals, such as Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communication, PNAS, the Journal of Neuroscience, and Stem Cell Translational Medicine. Dr. Lu is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, USA.