Year 1

We hypothesized that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells, which are derived from skin or other adult cells) can be efficiently reprogrammed to become heart cells using a combination of factors that includes proteins that unwind DNA. To test this hypothesis, we proposed three specific aims. For each we have achieved significant progress. In progress toward our first aim, we have been able to enhance cardiac differentiation of mouse iPS cells by 20%, and have devised strategies to increase this success rate. Our second aim was directed at understanding how important the chromatin remodeling factor, Baf60c, was in the induction of heart cells from pluripotent cells. We have made significant progress in this regard, mostly in developing the complex genetic tools required to investigate this important question. The third aim was to understand how Baf60c and its collaborating factors work to enhance heart cell formation. Again, we have had considerable success in early experiments that indicate that we will be able to address these questions fully in the remaining years of the granting period. Overall, our first year of funding has allowed us to move rapidly forward in understanding how to propel a stem cell toward becoming a heart cell; these results will be important to understand how heart cells are made in the body, and how their genesis can be harnessed using the power of stem cells.