ANAT2341 Lab 11 - Stem Cells

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012

Awarded jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent"

Shinya Yamanaka Yamanaka Factors are a set of 4 transcription factors when introduced into cells induces stem cell formation. Search PubMed
John Gurdon used nuclear transplantation and cloning to show that the nucleus of a differentiated somatic cell retains the totipotency necessary to form a whole organism. 2003 Current Biology Interview PMID 14521852 2009 Interview - "The birth of cloning" PMID 19132124 Search PubMed
The tumorigenicity of human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells PMID: 21390058 "Until recently, it was assumed that human induced pluripotent stem cells (HiPSCs) would behave like their embryonic counterparts in respect to their tumorigenicity. However, a rapidly accumulating body of evidence suggests that there are important genetic and epigenetic differences between these two cell types, which seem to influence their tumorigenicity."
iPS cells produce viable mice through tetraploid complementation^[1] "Here we report the generation of several iPS cell lines that are capable of generating viable, live-born progeny by tetraploid complementation. These iPS cells maintain a pluripotent potential that is very close to ES cells generated from in vivo or nuclear transfer embryos. We demonstrate the practicality of using iPS cells as useful tools for the characterization of cellular reprogramming and developmental potency, and confirm that iPS cells can attain true pluripotency that is similar to that of ES cells."