Reprogramming Archives

Defining epigenetic reprogramming, cellular reprogramming & rejuvenation

September 20, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

Epigenetic reprogramming is a term used in cell biology that is increasingly ending up in news stories too. Unfortunately, some folks, especially in the cellular rejuvenation and anti-aging space, are getting this term and other things confused. Just to start off, epigenetic reprogramming does not specifically mean cellular rejuvenation. The goal of today’s post is […]

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Weekly reads: reprogramming aging, astrocytes, cartilage, ChatGPT

January 15, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

Let’s start with a couple of new pieces on in vivo reprogramming. The idea here is to do something like making iPS cells but doing it inside organisms and not quite pushing cells all the way back to pluripotency. Just younger, healthier cells. Why do that? The goal is to achieve a kind of anti-aging

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Recommend reads: CRISPR baby guy free, DNMT3, sperm, Editas, hearing loss, reprogramming

April 17, 2022 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 3 Comments

We often don’t think of them that way but reproductive cells like sperm and egg are also relatives of stem cells, and it turns out that there are stem cells that make the reproductive cells too like sperm stem cells. Sperm and germ cell stem cells DNMT3A-dependent DNA methylation is required for spermatogonial stem cells

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Weekend reads: stem cells, CRISPR, glioma, stroke, RTT & more

September 29, 2019 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 8 Comments

Every so often I realize I’ve accumulated a bunch of tabs on my browsers of things I need to dive into as time permits, which sometimes translates into a collection of recommended reads here on The Niche. Here are some recommended recent reads in the stem cell/regenerative medicine field and childhood cancer space. It includes

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Fuzzy New Stem Cells Bring Cellular Reprogramming into Focus

December 10, 2014 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

How cool is it that literally fuzzy new stem cells called “F-class cells” bring substantial new sharp focus to the cellular reprograming arena? Remember Project Grandiose led by the great stem cell scientist Andras Nagy? It’s a massive project intended to decipher what makes stem cells tick and how ordinary cells be changed or reprogrammed into powerful

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Cool Cell Stem Cell Paper From Ishii Team on Histones & Reprogramming

March 6, 2014 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

Two of my favorite things are stem cells and histones. When they both come together in one paper and it’s in my favorite journal, Cell Stem Cell, you’ve got my full attention. My own lab is especially interested in the roles of histones and Myc in stem cells. So when I saw a paper a paper from

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100% reprogramming efficiency reports Jacob Hanna

September 18, 2013 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 6 Comments

A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel led by Jacob Hanna reports today near perfect reprogramming efficiency to make induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by eliminating a single factor called Mbd3 from the cellular equation. On first glance, the Nature article (Rais, et al.) seems to be all about boosting cellular reprogramming efficiency to close

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Stem cell field mostly taking a wait-and-see attitude toward all chemical iPS cells

July 21, 2013 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D.

I recently did a poll on people’s reactions to the new paper reporting use an all-chemical approach to making iPS cells through cellular reprogramming. I got a good number of responses relatively quickly. The results so far suggest that by far most people think it is too soon to know the importance of this new

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Why the extreme religious right are turning against iPS cells

May 9, 2013 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 5 Comments

Dr.-Oz-told-Oprah-and-Michael-J.-Fox-religious-right

There was a time, not so long ago, when the religious right hailed the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Headlines blared from the extreme right on the Internet such as, “Embryonic stem cells obsolete”. Even the same kind of thing, saying, “The stem cell debate is dead”. You see opponents of embryonic stem

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