Expanding on previous feature articles and conference highlights, GeneOnline is honored to have Dr. Xianmin Zeng, the Founder and CEO of RxCell, a Bay Area-based biotechnology company, and Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and, for an interview as part of the latest article on the Cell and Gene Therapy Special Series. During the interview, she covered important issues such as the latest trends in the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) industry, the development of iPSC technology, and the clinical benefits of iPSC therapy.

Dr. Zeng began by describing her journey into the field of stem cell research. After receiving her Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark in 2000, she moved to the U.S. and joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a postdoctoral researcher, working in the field of neuroscience and using the then-emerging embryonic stem cell technology to create dopaminergic neurons that could be used to develop potential cell replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease. In 2005, she moved to California to join the Buck Institute for Age Research, where she set up a stem cell research program. Following the advent of iPSC technology in 2006, her team started using iPSC as a cell source for developing new therapies, as well as for disease modeling and drug screening.