Wiping stem cells 'clean' could make them easier to produce
A technique for reprogramming adult cells that removes any trace of their origins could help produce stem cells at larger scales
A new way to turn adult human cells into ultra-flexible stem cells could make it easier to produce them in large quantities and make them more effective at treating disease.
Stem cells can develop into any of the cells within our bodies. Scientists have long hoped to exploit this ability by programming stem cells to become specific cells for use in treatments.
Professor Jose Polo, who is also with the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, explained that they have now developed a new method, called transient-naive-treatment (TNT) reprogramming, that mimics the reset of a cell’s epigenome that happens in very early embryonic development.
Dr. Daniel Poppe, a cell biologist from UWA, the Harry Perkins Institute, and co-first author, said the iPS cells generated using the TNT method differentiated into many other cells, such as neuron progenitors, better than the iPS cells generated with the standard method.
Monash University student and co-first author Jia Tan said the team’s TNT method was dynamite.
“It solves problems associated with conventionally generated iPS cells that if not addressed could have severely detrimental consequences for cell therapies in the long run,” he said.
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