Induced Pluripotent Stem (IPS) Cells Might Boost Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Adult cells of mice created from genetically reprogrammed cells can be triggered via drug to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the need for further genetic alteration, a discovery which promises to bring new efficiencies to embryonic stem cell research, according to a report in Nature Biotechnology. In the current work, Marius Wernig and Christopher Lengner, post-doctoral researchers in Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch's lab, made mice created in part from the embryonic-stem-cell-like cells known as IPS cells. The IPS cells were created by reprogramming adult skin cells using lentiviruses to randomly insert four genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4) into the cells' DNA. The IPS cells also were modified to switch on these four genes when a drug trigger, doxycycline, is added to the cells. Read More...
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