Provia Labs, which collects and preserves dental stem cells for future therapeutic uses, has created the Quality Advisory Group, comprising experts to help steer efforts for industry standards for the collection, transport, processing, and storage of stem cells from teeth.
The group will guide Provia Labs on drafting guidelines for the collection, transport, processing, and storage of dental stem cells, including appropriate quality control metrics to help ensure industry-wide uniformity in the viability and utility of these cells. The group will also advise Provia on how best to seek industry acceptance and adoption of the proposed standards.
The following are the initial members of the working group:
- Joseph Laning, PhD, senior director of the Human Stem Cell Bank and Registry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Paul Sharpe, PhD, the Dickinson Professor of Craniofacial Biology and the director of research at the King's College London Dental Institute
- Peter Verlander, PhD, a molecular geneticist with nearly 15 years of experience in human-genetics research in both academia and industry
- Mervin Yoder, MD, the Richard and Pauline Klingler Professor of Pediatrics and a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at the Indiana University School of Medicine
