Introduction to Skin Cell Blog

We will tell you the story of how skin cells are turned into stem cells from a patient with young onset sporadic Parkinson’s disease. His name is Alex. Alex has volunteered to have a skin biopsy taken. As we progress, we will explain to him how his cells are becoming a model for Parkinson’s disease, to better understand the causes of neurodegeneration.

We will take you on the “journey” from a skin biopsy, how it grows, how it gets coaxed into becoming stem cells. We will also find out how the skin-derived stem cells are characterized and how the stem cells will become dopamine producing neurons.

What is Parkinson's disease? Parkinson’s disease is a multifactorial disease. Genetic and environmental causes have been reported and many pathways in the neurons can be compromised. There is no one type of Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, it is critical to understand the cause in every Parkinson’s patient when we want to find better therapies and potentially a cure.

Patient-derived stem cell models are powerful tools to understand disease and to test drugs. These cells models have a human genetic background, mimic the neuronal cell type that is most susceptible in Parkinson’s disease. These cells are derived from patients with Parkinson's disease.

We are very excited about this project. Alex’s motto is ‘keep moving’. Please keep moving with us on this journey. Stay tuned.

Lauren, Jessica, and Birgitt