Cellular epigenetic diversity as a blueprint for defining the identity and functional potential of human embryonic stem cells

The SEED Awards are intended to bring new ideas and new investigators into the field of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The 73 awards worth $45,329,918 were approved 2/16/07. You can learn more about the awards by reading the RFA or reading the press release.

Public Abstract (provided by applicant)

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells have the capacity to self-renew but also give rise to other cell types. How this capacity is regulated and what factors determine one fate over another is an active area of research. This is because by understanding the decision making process the a stem cell goes through, we might be able to manipulate the process and make stem cells generate more of themselves or other cell types of interest. Preliminary studies indicate that one important determinant of stem cell fate is its

Statement of benefit to California (provided by applicant)

The available human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines display different capacities to proliferate to either generate more of themselves or differentiate to other cell types. Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms play critical roles in these developmental decisions, such as how a given cell establishes and maintains its identity. The identity of a pluripotent stem cell, such as an ES cell, is defined as being able to differentiate to all tissues of the body, yet, being able to switch off this differentiation process, otherwise, its self-renewal ability, or "stemness", is lost. There have also been observations that certain ES cell lines are better is resisting spontaneous differentiation, or more efficient in making particular cell types such as those of blood, than other lines. It is conceivable that this kind of variability in ES cell lines is likely linked to underlying epigenetic differences. Currently, there is no rapid or reliable way to scan epigenetic differences between different ES cell populations, as current methods are either too laborious to perform on daily basis, or contain very little biological information. Our work proposes to develop a natural, fast and high-throughput tool for measuring cellular epigenetic patterns, which we hypothesize to be linked not only to the identity of various differentiated cell types, as we have shown already, but also to define the quality or functional potential of various ES cell lines. It is important to understand and be able to measure the capacity of various ES cells so that appropriate cells are chosen for a clinical application of interest. This would be beneficial to the people of California because ES cells can be quality controlled before they are used in patients. Furthermore, if epigenetic modifications that link to cellular identity and functional potential become useful diagnostic tools, the approaches discussed in this project may lead to innovative discoveries and patents that may be exploited by the biotech industry in California, and thereby improve the economy of California.