Latest Oct-4 Stories

Finding is expected to steer future work on therapies down the most efficient and promising pathsResearchers in China are reporting that they have found a way to determine which somatic cells -- or differentiated body cells -- that have been reprogrammed into a primordial, embryonic-like state are the most viable for therapeutic applications.In a paper published online last week by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, two collaborating teams from institutes at the Chinese Academy of Sciences...

A new technique for reprogramming human adult cells could greatly improve the safety and efficiency of producing patient-specific stem cells for use in a range of therapeutic applications to repair or replace damaged or diseased tissues. A description of this innovative strategy is published in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular Reprogramming, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online.Stem cells offer great promise for use in cellular therapy to regenerate...

In a breakthrough that may help fill a critical need in stem cell research and patient care, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have demonstrated that skin cells found in human amniotic fluid can be efficiently "reprogrammed" to pluripotency, where they have characteristics similar to human embryonic stem cells that can develop into almost any type of cell in the human body. The study is online now and will appear in print in the next issue of the journal Cellular...

New study calls research factors into questionThey are considered to be the most important model organism for research into human biology: mice may look totally different, but they are in many ways similar to Homo sapiens on a fundamental level. For instance, an impressive 99 percent of the mouse genes are matched by a corresponding sequence in the human genome. That is also why the law in this part of the world only permits scientists to conduct research on human embryo stem cells when they...

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for U.S. Patent Application Number 10/997,146 entitled "Methods for Reprogramming Somatic Cells." Upon issuance, the patent will cover foundational induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology for identifying agents that enable the reprogramming of human somatic cells, including pluripotency genes, small molecules and biologics. The invention by...

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- iPierian, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on changing the paradigm of drug discovery and development through the application of cellular reprogramming, today announced that the Intellectual Property Office in the United Kingdom has issued a Notification of Grant to iPierian for UK patent No. GB2450603, its first patent related to induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. The newly granted UK patent covers the generation...

Singapore scientists' surprising discovery potentially relevant to cell-therapy-based medicineIn the new issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, Singapore scientists report the surprising discovery that a novel transcription factor, Nr5a2, can replace one of the classical reprogramming factors, Oct 4, to significantly increase the efficiency of reprogramming differentiated stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).Previous research revealed that the reprogramming of...

A collaborative study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies uncovered that the tumor suppressor p53, which made its name as "guardian of the genome", not only stops cells that could become cancerous in their tracks but also controls somatic cell reprogramming.Although scientists have learned how to reprogram adult human cells such as skin cells into so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the reprogramming efficiency is still woefully low. The Salk...

Research Team at WPI and CellThera Discovers a Way toTurn on Stem Cell Genes in Human Skin Cells Without Using Viruses or Inserting New GenesThe research team reported its findings in the paper "Induction of Stem Cell Gene Expression in Adult Human Fibroblasts without Transgenes," published online July 21, 2009 (in advance of September print publication) as a "fast track" paper from the journal Cloning and Stem Cells. (Cloning, Stem Cells. 2009 Jul 21.)   "We...

Researchers have discovered an added layer of complexity in the network that determines human embryonic stem cell fate. A report publishing online April 30th in the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows that a microRNA known as miR-145 lowers the activity of three key ingredients in the "recipe" for making embryonic stem cells. The discovery may have implications for improving the efficiency of methods designed to reprogram differentiated cells into embryonic stem cell-like...