Funded in part by grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the NIH, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have come up with a simple, easily repeated RNA-based technique of generating human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The study was published in the August 1st edition of Cell Stem Cell. The researchers’ method has wide-ranging applications for others searching for new cell therapies and use in other stem cell studies.
According to the University of California, San Diego news site, current human iPSC studies have paved the way for potential regenerative medicine therapies based on stem cells personalized for each patient. Pluripotent implies that in the patient’s body, the cells are able to develop any other body cell types. Since iPSCs come from a patient’s own cells, researchers thought that using them in treatment would not result in immune system responses, but depending on the process of iPSC generation, they may be dangerous in this way and their use limited in this area. For example, altering the cell’s genome through use of a virus may have the result of promoting cancer in the host cell.
At first, the process of developing integration-free iPSCs was not easily reproducible, so scientists focused on developing a self-replicating, RNA-based method. The University of California, San Diego researchers used a Venezuelan virus found in horses (VEE) with structural proteins present, added four reprogramming factors and made a single transfection of the VEE replicative form RNA into human fibroblasts, or connective tissue cells.
University of California, San Diego
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
“This resulted in efficient generation of iPSCs with all the hallmarks of stem cells,” said Steven Dowdy, PhD, principal investigator and University of California, San Diego Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine professor. “The method is highly reproducible, efficient, non-integrative – and it works.”
An enormous amount of groundbreaking research is being conducted in labs at the University of California, San Diego. Lab suppliers interested in marketing life science solutions and university lab equipment may be interested to know how well-funded the university is. In 2012, the University of California, San Diego received $395 million from the NIH. The research funding was spread out over a number of life science research disciplines. For a full list of departments receiving funding and awards, please visit the NIH website. The University of California, San Diego also received $70 million from the NSF in 2012. For more detailed information on NSF research funding and life science projects receiving awards, please visit the NSF website.
If you are a lab supplier interested in marketing your life science solutions and university lab equipment at University of California, San Diego life science marketing events, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites you to attend our semiannual San Diego Biotechnology Vendor Showcase™ Event, which is quickly approaching on August 22, 2013. Last year, our San Diego Biotechnology Vendor Showcase™ Event attracted 723 attendees. 224 of these attendees were purchasing agents, professors and post docs, and 77 were lab managers. The visitors came from 69 different research buildings and 76 departments across campus.
Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is a full-service science research marketing and events-planning company that organizes life science marketing events at top research institutions across the country. For more information on our San Diego Biotechnology Vendor Showcase™ Event and detailed funding statistics on the University of California, San Diego, click on the button below. If you are interested in marketing your life science solutions and university lab equipment at life science marketing events closer to home, we encourage you to view our 2013 calendar of events.
