Mahipal Singh

Title: Recovering life after death: A livestock experience

Abstract:

Is clinical death an ultimate destination of life? A eukaryotic organism’s structural body is composed of cells which must be alive to complete the physiological functions of a living organism. What happen to these individual cells after clinical death? Are they all dead as the blood circulation stops and the oxygen, which is our lifeline, is no longer transported to the cells? Or are they still alive for some time, and if yes, for how long, are the questions that always puzzled scientists. This research presentation will address these questions based on a literature survey and our own research experiences on livestock. We recently developed a procedure to recover the live proliferative stem cells from postmortem tissues. We used this procedure to determine the time limits within which live cells can be recovered after death from postmortem tissues stored at different environmental temperatures. Research experiments in our lab suggest that the individual cells in mammalian tissues are alive for much longer time than was previously thought. Furthermore, these recovered live stem cells retain normal characteristics and can be stored frozen for several years. This research results highlight the huge potential of utilization of postmortem tissues for the recovery of stem cells for cellular therapies in human and veterinary medicine, and preservation of germplasm from accidentally died elite animals and endangered species which could be used to revive lost genetics in future by somatic cell nuclear transfer aka cloning.

Audience Take Away Notes:

• Learn the latest research about the ultimate unit of life i.e. the cell and, in particular, about its resilience in postmortem tissues in mammalian systems
• They will learn about the simple procedure to recover the proliferative cells from postmortem tissues which they could apply in their own laboratories and
• They will learn about the potential applications of postmortem cellular life including in cellular therapies in human and veterinary medicine and preservation of germplasm especially in livestock industry and veterinary domestic animals including dogs, cats, horses which could be utilized in future to bring back the lost genetics

Biography:

Dr. Mahipal Singh is a professor of Animal Science/Biotechnology at the Fort Valley State University, Georgia. He teaches undergraduate and graduate students and has an active research program in animal biotechnology. He earned his PhD from Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India, and subsequently had his postdoctoral training at Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. Prior to joining FVSU in 2007, Dr. Singh served as a scientist at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource technology in India and played a key role in establishing the Molecular Biology Laboratory in its Biotechnology Department. His research interests include genetic engineering of livestock, stem cells, and animal reproduction.