Sarah Heilshorn, Ph.D.

An innovative delivery technology vastly improves the viability of tissue regenerating cells, and enhances strength and coordination in animals with spinal-cord injury.

In a study published in Science Advances, Stanford neurosurgical researcher Giles Plant, PhD, and materials engineer Sarah Heilshorn, PhD, and their colleagues report that a customized gel — developed in Heilshorn’s lab as a shock absorber for regenerative cells during and after their perilous journey through the tip of a syringe to the targeted tissue — kept those cells safe.

As a vehicle for delivering regenerative cells to rats with movement-impairing spinal-cord injuries, this gel overwhelmingly outperformed saline (the current clinical standard). It boosted the numbers of successfully-delivered cells by more than sevenfold compared with saline, as measured two days after the procedure. At four weeks, the gel’s advantage over saline was more than tenfold… Continue reading.

Sarah Heilshorn, PhD, a Stanford (Calif.) University associate professor of materials science and engineering, authored a paper in Nature Materials about growing and preserving neural stem cells, according to Stanford News.

Here are six things to know:

1. The task of growing neural stem cells so they can mature in various cell types proves challenging. Dr. Heilshorn notes the process requires an expansive amount of space, energy and nutrients.

2. Further, Dr. Heilshorn writes that after cells have divided in a lab dish, it is difficult to maintain the stem cells so they mature into other cell types… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Sarah Heilshorn, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Lee Otterson Faculty Scholar, Materials Science, Stanford University, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Heilshorn was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For outstanding work in the development of novel biomaterials for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies.