Neural Development and Stem Cells (3^rd Ed., 3rd ed. 2012) Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Series

Defining Neural Stem Cells and Their Role in Normal Development of the Nervous System.- Embryonic Stem Cells and Neurogenesis.- The Cellular and Molecular Properties of Multipotent Neural Stem Cells.- Multipotent Stem Cells in the Embryonic Nervous System.- Neural Crest Formation and Diversification.- Glial Nature of Adult Neural Stem Cells:  Neurogenic Competence in Adult Astrocytes.- Neural Stem Cell Death Regulation in Nervous System Development and Disease.- Stem Cells of the Adult Olfactory Epithelium.- Retinal Stem Cells.- Transdifferentiation in the Nervous System.- Neural and Dopaminergic Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.- Mobilization of Neural stem cells in the Adult Central Nervous System.- Stem Cell Pathways in Brain Tumors.

Mahendra S. Rao, MD, Ph.D

Dr. Rao is internationally renowned for his research involving human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and other somatic stem cells. He has worked in the stem cell field for more than 20 years, with stints in academia, government and regulatory affairs and industry. He received his M.D. from Bombay University in India and his Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Following postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, he established his research laboratory in neural development at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He next joined the National Institute on Aging as chief of the Neurosciences Section, where he studied neural progenitor cells and continued to explore his longstanding interest in their clinical potential. He then spent six years as the vice president of Regenerative Medicine at Life Technologies, Carlsbad, Calif. Most recently, he returned in August 2011 tothe National Institutes of Health (NIH), as Director of the new NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine (NIH CRM). He co-founded Q Therapeutics, a neural stem cell company based in Salt Lake City. He also served internationally on advisory boards for companies involved in stem cell processing and therapy, on committees including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Cellular Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee chair, and as the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and International Society for Stem Cell Research liaison to the International Society for Cellular Therapy.

Melissa Carpenter, Ph. D.

For the last 17 years, Dr. Carpenter has worked on the development of cell therapies using human adult and embryonic stem cells, in academia and industry, in the United States and Canada.  She has been involved with human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research since the field was established.  Her work involves discovery research and the translation oft