Year 2

The goal of this project is to develop and bank safe, well-characterized pluripotent stem cell lines that can be used to study and potentially ameliorate human diseases. To speed this process, we are taking approaches that are not limited by technical, ethical or immunological considerations. We are establishing protocols for generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) that would not involve viral vector integration, and that are compatible with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards. Our efforts to develop new strategies for the production of safe hiPSC have yielded many new cell lines generated by various techniques. We are characterizing these lines molecularly, and have found hiPSCs can be made that are nearly indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). We have also recently found in all the hiPSCs generated from female fibroblasts, none reactivated the X chromosome. This finding has opened a new frontier in the study and potential treatment of X-linked diseases. We are currently optimizing protocols to generate hiPSC lines that are derived, reprogrammed and differentiated in the absence of animal cell products, and preparing detailed standard operating procedures that will ready this technology for clinical utility.