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Innovation Profile: Dr Peter Zandstra Professor of Tissue Engineering
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Dr Peter Zandstra is advancing stem cell research with new techniques that guide stem cells to behave in certain ways. His Stem Cell Bioengineering Laboratory at the University of Toronto (U of T) is renowned for designing so-called "bioreactors" to grow blood stem cells and increase their yield. Using bioreactors to control the stem cell microenvironment, the team has also been able to grow and differentiate pluripotent stem cells into specialized cells -- offering a potential source of healthy cells and tissues for people with conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
"We are moving towards the use of stem cells as a drug to treat disease," says Dr Peter Zandstra, a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering and Professor of Tissue Engineering at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials and
Biomedical Engineering, as well as its Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. "For example, can we generate and deliver a stem cell-derived cell that might help with diabetes, or blood stem cells to renew someone's blood-forming system?"
Dr Zandstra's lab is working on understanding how complex communication networks between stem cells and their progeny influence differentiation, and designing bioreactors specifically capable of controlling these networks and thus, cell fate. 
Dr Zandstra, who holds five patents relating to bioreactor technologies, says "robust, efficient and cost-effective stem cell production systems" are crucial to the development of stem cell based therapies and products. Not surprisingly, his research is attracting the attention of Ontario start-up companies.
According to Dr Zandstra, the Toronto Region offers a perfect environment for stem cell research. "Toronto has the critical mass and collaborative environment. All the different pieces needed to solve the stem cell puzzle are in place. We provide the bioengineering translation part, while others provide a development or genetic engineering perspective. You can go right from discovery to therapy all in the same place."
Dr Zandstra and his team of more than 20 investigators are based at U of T's Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, a unique organization in which researchers from three faculties work together in an open, fluid environment.
Dr Zandstra is a member of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and a McLaughlin Scholar at the R. Samuel McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine, leading organizations headquartered in Toronto. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he has published more than 60 papers. Among many awards received, Dr Zandstra was honoured with the $100,000 McLean Award and the Guggenheim Fellowship.
© 2010 Toronto Region Research Alliance