Dr. Uma Lakshmipathy has been involved in the field of stem cells for nearly a decade. Her doctoral degree in Molecular Biophysics and subsequent postdoctoral experience in DNA repair brought new perspective and led her to the area of stem cell research with focus on developing ex vivo gene repair systems. As a junior faculty at the Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, she identified efficient gene delivery methods into stem cells to enable repair of adult stem cells from monogene disorders. She moved to Invitrogen, Life Technologies, in 2005 and was involved in the development of novel technology platforms for creating labeled stem cells. Her current research interests at Life Technologies, now a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, are regulation of stem cell maintenance, development of technologies for generation, identification, characterization of pluripotent stem cells, and modification their derivatives.