Doris Taylor
Encyclopedia
Doris Taylor is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

 known for her achievements in stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

 research and decellularization.

She is the director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

. Her most recent accomplishment was leading a team which demonstrated the ability to create an entirely new rat heart in the lab.

Biography

In 1977, Taylor received her BSc in Biology at the Mississippi University for Women
Mississippi University for Women
Mississippi University for Women, also known as MUW or simply the "W" is a four-year coeducational public university located in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly known as Industrial Institute and College and later Mississippi State College for Women...

 in Columbus, Mississippi
Columbus, Mississippi
Columbus is a city in Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States that lies above the Tombigbee River. It is approximately northeast of Jackson, north of Meridian, south of Tupelo, northwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and west of Birmingham, Alabama. The population was 25,944 at the 2000 census...

. In 1988, Taylor was awarded her PhD in Pharmacology from the Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

.

In 2008, Taylor led a team which published research on the creation of a completely new rat heart in the lab. This breakthrough was expected to pave the way for future research to eventually create entire replacement organs based on the patient's own cells, which would eliminate the need for transplants or drugs to prevent rejection (tissue engineering
Tissue engineering
Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions...

).

In February 2008, Dr. Taylor was invited by Dr Earl Bakken to present her research findings at the Hawaii Heart Brain Center in northern Hawaii.

In April 2011 her team at the University of Minnesota used adult human stem cells to create a human heart. This was from a heart stripped of its cells, leaving behind a tough protein skeleton known as a "ghost heart". This was then coated with adult human stem cells and the researchers hope the heart will start beating in the coming weeks .

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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