Question: Benjamin Alman, MD, FRCSC, was the head of the division of Orthopedic surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, senior scientist in developmental and stem cells scientific study of undifferentiated biological cells, that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide (through which scientific process) to produce more duplicates?

Stem cell genomics analyzes the genomes of stem cells.  Currently, this field is rapidly expanding due to the dramatic decrease in the cost of sequencing genomes.  The study of stem cell genomics has wide reaching implications in the study of stem cell biology and possible therapeutic usages of stem cells.  Application of research in this field could lead to drug discovery and information on diseases by the molecular characterization of the pluripotent stem cell through DNA and transcriptome sequencing and looking at the epigenetic changes of stem cells and subsequent products.  One step in that process is single cell phenotypic analysis, and the connection between the phenotype and genotype of specific stem cells.  While current genomic screens are done with entire populations of cells, focusing in on a single stem cell will help determine specific signaling activity associated with varying degrees of stem cell differentiation and limit background due to heterogeneous populations.  Single cell analysis of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), or stem cells able to differentiate into many different cell types, is a suggested method for treating such diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD).  This includes for understanding the differences between sporadic AD and familial AD.  By first taking a skin sample from the patient and are transformed by transducing cells using retroviruses to encode such stem cell genes as Oct4, Sox2, KLF4 and cMYC.  This allows for skin cells to be reprogrammed into patient-specific stem cell lines.  Taking genomic sequences of these individual cells would allow for patient-specific treatments and furthering understanding of AD disease models.  This technique would be used for similar diseases, like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).  These stem cells developed from a singular patient would also be able to be used to produce cells affected in the above mentioned diseases.  As mentioned, it will also lead to patient specific phenotypes of each disease.  Further chemical analyses to develop safer drugs can be done through sequence information and cell-culture tests on iPSCs.  After development on a specific drug, it can be transferred to other patient diseased cells while also being safety tested. <SEP> Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide (through mitosis) to produce more stem cells.  They are found in multicellular organisms.  In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues.  In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues.  In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells—ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm (see induced pluripotent stem cells)—but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues. <SEP> Benjamin Alman, MD, FRCSC, was the head of the division of Orthopedic surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, senior scientist in developmental and stem cell biology at Sick Kids, and vice chair of the department of surgery at the University of Toronto.  He has given many speeches and lectures throughout the world, and has won many awards and prizes, including the Premier’s Research Excellence Award, the Huene Award, the OREF Research Award, and the Royal College Medal in Surgery.  .  As of June 1, 2013, he is the head of Orthopedics at Duke University Medical School in Durham, North Carolina. <SEP> Endothelial stem cells (ESCs) are one of three types of stem cells found in bone marrow.  They are multipotent, which describes the ability to give rise to many cell types, whereas a pluripotent stem cell can give rise to all types.  ESCs have the characteristic properties of a stem cell: self-renewal and differentiation.  These parent stem cells, ESCs, give rise to progenitor cells, which are intermediate stem cells that lose potency.  Progenitor stem cells are committed to differentiating along a particular cell developmental pathway.  ESCs will eventually produce endothelial cells (ECs), which create the thin-walled endothelium that lines the inner surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels.