Poly(ADP)ribose (pADPr) modification is known to regulate the state of DNA condensation in the cell nucleus. Under normal conditions, pADPr is extremely unstable due to the enzymatic activity of pADPr glycohydrolase (PARG). We studied the salivary glands of PARG-deficient Drosophila ...
Hematopoiesis is the highly regulated and complex process by which blood cells are formed. Hematopoiesis can be achieved in vitro by the differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into hematopoietic lineage cells. Differentiation of ESCs initially gives rise to mesoderm coloni ...
Future stem cell-based therapies will benefit from the new discoveries being made on pluripotent stem cells such as embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells. Understanding the genes regulating pluripotency has opened new opportunities to generate patient ...
Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells recently developed in our laboratory can be used to generate the much needed insulin producing cells (IPCs) for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. However, currently available differentiation protocols ge ...
The isolation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) has furthered our understanding of normal embryonic development and fueled the progression of stem cell derived therapies. However, the generation of ESCs requires the destruction of an embryo, making the use of these cells ethically controv ...
Knowing that human embryonic stem cells (HESC) can be derived into several different cells types render these cells very attractive to cure diseases. Unless these stem cells are originated from the patient itself, they will be isolated from a donor, who is genetically unrelated to the recipien ...
Evaluation of the immunogenicity of embryonic stem cell derived differentiated cells is important for their potential application in cell replacement therapies and transplantations. Low immunogenicity or even an immune privileged status would enable their general use in all ...
Natural killer (NK) cells are key effectors of the innate immune system, protecting the host from a variety of infections, as well as malignant cells. Recent advances in the field of NK cell biology have led to a better understanding of how NK cells develop. This progress has directly translated to impr ...
The potential to develop into any cell type makes human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) one of the most promising sources for regenerative treatments. Hurdles to their clinical applications include (1) formation of heterogeneously differentiated cultures, (2) the risk of teratoma fo ...
Immune privilege provides protection to vital tissues or cells of the body when foreign antigens are introduced into these sites. The modern concept of relative immune privilege applies to a variety of tissues and anatomical structures, including the hair follicles and mucosal surface ...
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are defined by their simultaneous capacity for limitless self-renewal and the ability to specify cells borne of all germ layers. The regulation of ESC pluripotency is governed by a set of core transcription factors that regulate transcription by interfacing w ...
Despite advances in understanding pluripotency through traditional cell biology and gene expression profiling, the signaling networks responsible for maintenance of pluripotency and lineage-specific differentiation are poorly defined. To aid in an improved understa ...
Comparing normal human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to those that have acquired cellular properties of neoplasm provides a unique opportunity to study the distinguishing molecular features of human cellular transformation. As global alterations in the epigenetic landscape are a ...
Differentiation of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells can recapitulate many aspects of hematopoiesis, in vitro, and can even generate cells capable of long-term multilineage repopulation after transplantation into recipient mice, when the homeodomain transcription fa ...
Engineering of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) offers a great potential tool for the study of human gene function. There are many techniques that can be used to engineer human cells, but most are lacking in either specificity or efficiency. Jump-In™ TI™ technology utilizes two bacteriophage r ...
Gene delivery into stem cells can be achieved using viral and nonviral methods. Nonviral methods are more appealing and the use of episomal vectors that do not integrate into the genome enables expression of transgene that are not subject to genomic loci effects that could affect expression le ...
One major obstacle in realizing the potential behind human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is the availability of efficient and reliable engineering methods. Such methods require cloning technologies that can be applied to a variety of platforms and can serve multiple functions. In the last t ...
Human pluripotent stem cells provide unique possibilities for in vitro studies of human cells in basic research, disease modeling as well as in industrial applications. By introducing relevant genome engineering technology, and thereby creating, for example, reporter cell lines, o ...
Reprogramming human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells is an important avenue in biological research. Advances in the profiling of human stem cells have identified important pluripotency maintenance factors. The presence and relative expression levels of these ess ...
Analyzing gene expression profiles from cells en masse provides an average profile for the population which may obscure differences in individual cells. Using an optimized workflow for qRT-PCR, gene expression profiles of undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells reveal distin ...