It’s been more than 4 years since Shinya Yamanaka published the remarkable finding that his lab could transform or “reprogram” regular cells called fibroblasts into a very unique state that was quite similar to that of embryonic stem cells (ESC). Yamanaka called these new cells “iPS cells” for induced pluripotent stem cells. Since that time, …
A new paper is out from a team at The Salk lead by Joseph Ecker that the methylomes of many different human iPS cells. Their conclusion is that while iPS cells and ES cells are generally very similar in terms of the global portions of the genomes that are methylated, iPS cells exhibited hundreds of …
My lab studies iPS cells. We are excited about iPS cells and they have enormous potential. However, there are some realities about iPS cells related to safety that impede our ability to use them to treat patients any time soon. We must solve these roadblocks before we can move forward, but interestingly, these facts are …
It happens several times a month these days. Some new, interesting paper comes out on IPS cells or on transdifferentiation. Immediately, opponents of ES cell research criminally twist the findings in the new paper and produce ‘news’ headlines that pop up high on Google to the effect that ES cells are now ‘obsolete’. IPS cells …
It has been an eventful year so far for the stem cell field. Where do we go from here ? What are the key questions that face the field? Below are my top 10 questions for the field, NOT listed in any particular order, and some predictions. Update: you can see the predictions for the …
Questions & my predictions for the stem cell field right now Read More »
Regenerative medicine is very exciting. But what’s even better than regenerative medicine? Preventative medicine. If one can prevent a problem for occurring in the first place, it is far better than trying to treat it after the fact. Of course in many cases we do not know the causes of diseases so it is difficult …
A paper just came out in PNAS entitled “Promotion of direct reprogramming by transformation-deficient Myc“. The main thrust of this paper is that the tumorigenic and pluripotency-related functions of Myc could be separated. It focused primarily on the lesser studied LMyc. The topic of the intertwined good (pluripotency) and bad (tumorigenicity) functions of Myc, addressed …
Tumorigenicity and Pluripotency teased apart? Not yet for Myc Read More »