Thamil Selvee Ramasamy
Stem Cell Research Laboratory, Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA.

Invited by Delphine Fessart and the Oncology and Gynaecology (OncoGyne) Laboratory head by Frederic Delom

Thursday, October 23 at 10:30 a.m., BBS conference room, 2 rue du Dr Hoffmann Martinot

Stem Cell Plasticity in Developmental Biology, Regenerative Medicine and Cancer

Short biosketch: Dr. Ramasamy earned her PhD in Clinical Medicine Research Programme (specialisation: human embryonic stem cell research) from Imperial College London, UK. She is currently serving as an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and heading the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Exploring the potential of stem cells in development of therapy for degenerative diseases and targeting cancer stem cells are the primary focus of her research. More details can be found in her page: umexpert.um.edu.my/selvee.html and Web of Science Researcher IDF-3044-2012.

Abstract

Stem cell plasticity is the key concept in developmental biology, enabling the zygote and inner cell mass to give rise to all 208 specialized cell types through exquisitely precise signalling and cell–cell communication. I will share on how embryonic stem cells can be used to understand and engineer cell fates, focusing on my work on neuronal and hepatic differentiation. Both embryonic and adult stem cells offer a versatile reservoir for generating therapeutically relevant cells in regenerative medicine, this talk will cover the work done in our laboratory on developing regenerative therapies using stem cells in combination with other approaches.

Intriguingly, in oncology, cancer stem cell plasticity fuels tumour heterogeneity, therapy resistance, and relapse, presenting persistent challenges for effective treatment. In the interest of BRIC researchers, I will devote most of my talk to how we model cancer stem cells in culture, using these models to unravel the molecular regulation governing plasticity in malignant contexts, with a particular focus on hepatocellular carcinoma. Since the direction of our current work aims to leverage cutting-edge technologies including spatial transcriptomics, nanotechnology-based drug delivery, drug repurposing, and cancer immunotherapy to intercept cancer stem cell plasticity and advance precision oncology, I would like explore your expertise and discuss potential collaborations with BRIC researchers in this domain.

Contact to meet Thamil Selvee Ramasamy : Delphine Fessart : delphine.fessart@inserm.fr