Braid lab

The Braid MSC Discovery and Innovation Lab is working to design the next generation of mesenchymal stem and stromal cell (MSCs) therapies.  Through strategic partnerships across disciplines, government, industry and academia, we are also developing new technologies to fill current gaps in MSC manufacturing and release testing and ease-of-administration to better enable clinical adoption and regulatory approval of MSC therapies worldwide.

Our research program focuses on the enigmatic and functionally profound mesenchymal stem and stromal cell (MSC) populations. Our team characterizes the transcriptional, molecular, metabolic and functional phenotypes of tissue-resident and culture expanded human MSCs using cellomics (high content and live cell imaging), next-generation sequencing and metabolomics. Our aim is to understand how MSCs respond, adapt and evolve in response to environmental and pathogenic stresses, and to identify new markers of MSC subpopulations. We use this information to generate new research tools and technologies to study endogenous MSCs, to model MSC interactions in physiological and pathological states, to develop biomarkers and functional assays to support clinical translation of consistent (batch-to-batch) and efficacious MSC products, and to discover next generation therapeutics that rejuvenate or eliminate tissue-resident MSCs that may underlie auto-immune and aging-related diseases.

Email: 

LORENA BRAID

lrbraid@sfu.ca

Assistant Professor

Canada Research Chair in Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Biology, Tier 2

Office: SSB 7152

Office phone: 778-782-3459

Lab Room: SSB 6150

Lab phone: 778-782-5879