Dr. April Pyle, Principal Investigator

Dr. Pyle received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 2002 with Dr. Mary Ann Handel and completed her postdoctoral fellowship work with Peter Donovan in 2006 at Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at UCLA and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Stem Cell Center, the Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Dr. Pyle holds the George and Nouhad Ayoub Centennial Chair in Life Sciences Innovation.  Dr. Pyle’s lab uses multi-disciplinary approaches to study human pluripotent stem cell and muscle stem cell biology and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. Dr. Pyle’s lab studies both basic aspects of stem cell biology as well as more translational aspects of human pluripotent stem cell differentiation towards skeletal muscle for use in therapeutic approaches for patients with muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular diseases.