Gene Transfer
Background
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Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an attractive target for ex vivo gene therapy, since they have a high proliferation capacity and maintainin vitrothe ability to differentiate into a variety of mesenchymal tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat and muscle. Lentiviral vectors are endowed with several features that make them excellent candidates for mesenchymal stem cells-based gene therapy: their relative large cloning capacity, ability for stable integration, and absence of vector-induced immune responses. |
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More recently, the lentiviral vectors have also been used as a highly efficient gene transfer tool for "lentiviral transgenesis", a method to generate large animal models.
With regard to the lentiviral production and transduction we would like to acknowledge the Max-von-Pettenkofer-Institute, Virology Section, University of Munich (Department of Prof. U. Koszinowski) for providing the S2-facility.
Current Projects
- Immortalization and generation of human mesenchymal stem cell lines
- vestigation of molecular mechanisms of human mesenchymal stem cell migration in dufferent in vitro and in vivo models
- vestigation of molecular mechanisms of osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells
- Transgenic large animal models of osteoporosis
Group Leader
| Wolfgang Böcker, MD went for medical school to Berlin and Toledo / Ohio. He did his medical internship in Regensburg. For his postdoctoral fellowship he went for 2 years to the Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School in Boston, followed by 2 years of medical training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 2002 he started at the Department of Surgery at LMU in Munich and joint the research lab in 2003. His main research focus is on lentiviral gene transfer in mesenchymal stem cells and lentiviral transgenesis in large animal models of bone diseases and therapies. He is currently the head of the gene transfer group. |  |
Contact: Wolfgang.Boecker@med.uni-muenchen.de
