Molecular Players in iPSC Technology

Dr. Alexander Birbrair received his bachelor’s biomedical degree from Santa Cruz State University in Brazil. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience, in the field of stem cell biology, at the Wake Forest School of Medicine under the mentorship of Osvaldo Delbono. Then, he joined as a postdoc in stem cell biology at Paul Frenette’s laboratory at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York. In 2016, he was appointed faculty at Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, where he started his own lab. His laboratory is interested in understanding how the cellular components of different tissues function and control disease progression. His group explores the roles of specific cell populations in the tissue microenvironment by using state-of-the-art techniques. His research is funded by the Serrapilheira Institute, CNPq, CAPES, and FAPEMIG. In 2018, Alexander was elected affiliate member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), and, in 2019, he was elected member of the Global Young Academy (GYA), and in 2021, he was elected affiliate member of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Current Tissue Microenvironment Reports, and Associate Editor of Molecular Biotechnology. Alexander also serves in the editorial board of several other international journals: Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, Stem Cell Research, Stem Cells and Development, and Histology and Histopathology.

• 1. Engineering Exosomal MicroRNAs in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells 2. Auxiliary Pluripotency-Associated Genes and Their Contributions in the Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 3. Improving the Safety of iPSC-derived T Cell Therapy 4. Induced Pluripotency and Intrinsic Reprogramming Factors: Adult Stem Cells Versus Somatic Cells 5. Role of Ion Channels in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived Cardiomyocytes 6. Notch Signaling in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 7. The Role of Cell Cycle in Reprogramming Towards Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) 8. The Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Signaling Pathway in Biology of Pluripotent Stem Cells 9. SOCS3/JAK2/STAT3 Pathway in iPSCs 10. Nanog in iPS Cells and During Reprogramming 11. The Role of Krüppel-like Factors in Generating Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 12. The Oocyte-Specific Linker Histone H1FOO Plays A Key Role in Establishing High-Quality Mouse Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells