“It’s really exciting,” Hsieh says about her research into epilepsy and the possibilities that await at UTSA. “We are trying to model human brain disorders in a dish. We’re collecting blood samples from patients who have our disease of interest; then we can use the blood sample and reprogram their cells to become what’s called a pluripotent stem cell, which is a stem cell that can become a brain cell or any cell in the body.” Hsieh is establishing a core facility at UTSA to do that type of reprogramming, and once the stem cell lines are made, they can be distributed to other researchers. Read more