スピーカー紹介

James Wells is a professor of Pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center where he holds an endowed position from the Perinatal Institute. He is in the Division of Developmental Biology and where he established and now directs the human pluripotent stem cell facility. He is also the Director for Basic Research in the Division of Endocrinology. He received his Ph.D. degree in Genetics from the State University of NY at Stony Brook. He performed his postdoctoral research at Harvard University with Doug Melton. He became an Assistant professor at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the Division of Developmental Biology in 2002, was promoted to associate professor in 2008 and full professor in 2012.

Research in the Wells lab focuses on identifying the molecular mechanisms that control organogenesis and to use this information to direct the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into human organ tissues (organoids) including pancreas, stomach and intestine. Organoids are being used to model diabetes and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and studied for their therapeutic potential to restore function to damaged tissues.