Thesis live: Introduction, “contents” draft

From now on I start every “thesis live” post with the standard introduction: In the live thesis building blogxperiment I edit (digest, compile, write, rewrite, delete) my ongoing doctoral thesis in blog posts and put the parts together on thesis live. The title: The physiologic role of stem cells in tissues with different regenerative potential

I am not aiming any perfection, my focus is clearly on getting things (the PhD) done here. Anyway, I found the idea of “writing” a complete, lengthy and formal thesis outdated and inefficient (after all, scientists should conduct nice experiments and publish their results in short, inforich and accessible research papers in order to share it ASAP with the research community, not in book-length, otherwise unaccessible PDFs) and so I try to keep myself motivated by

- doing this “thesis live” series as an open science experiment and getting useful feedback from my fellow scientists and readers

- trying to include as many systemic, whole body level material into it that could be relevant for systemic regmed approaches

- reminding myself every day that without a PhD it is hard to move further in science officially (that’s the least motivating factor though as it is official)

After the blah-blah let’s start with the planned introduction points:

1. Introduction:

1.1 Stem cells and regenerative medicine

1.2. Tissues, organs with different turnover and regenerative potential

Gut epithelium,
Blood – hematopoietic system
Epidermis,
Mammary epithelium,
Vascular endothelium,
Liver,
Adrenal cortex,
Pancreas,
Lung parenchyma,
Brain – central nervous system
Heart,
Skeletal muscle,
Retina,
Kidney,
Spinal Cord

1.3 Repair/Regenerative mechanisms

differentiation
fusion
paracrine factors
immunomodulatory effects
anti-inflammatory effects
mitochondrial transfer

1.4 Functional improvements through stem cells