WEBINARS

Genetic modification of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived CD34⁺ cells holds great promise for generating allogeneic cellular therapies. However, modification methods that result in genome integration may pose a risk of genotoxicity to cells.

In this webinar, Julia Peterson will describe how she developed a non-integrating, stably maintained DNA vector system for the genetic modification of iPSC-derived CD34ﱣ cells. She will also talk about using urine samples as a quick, cost-effective, and non-invasive method to derive iPSCs that can then be differentiated into CD34⁺ hematopoietic progenitor cells. Furthermore, she will describe how these iPSC-derived CD34⁺ cells could be used as a potential treatment for monogenic blood diseases, as well as how they can act as an intermediate step in the development of T-cell immunotherapy.

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Speaker Bio

Julia Peterson is a doctoral researcher at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, and is working to obtain her PhD in Biosciences from Universität Heidelberg. She is a part of Dr. Richard Harbottle’s group, a lab that explores the possible applications of SMAR DNA vectors as a novel gene modification tool. As a part of her PhD work, she is investigating whether iPSCs genetically modified using SMAR DNA vectors could be utilized to create iPSC-derived T-cell immunotherapies.
Over the past 4 years, Julia’s work has received recognition from the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), and she has been awarded the best PhD talk from the DKFZ for her work on mouse blood stem and progenitor cell electroporation. Julia earned her MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and graduated summa cum laude from Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Michigan, USA with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry. 

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