Year 4

This grant has enabled a plethora of activities pertaining to stem cell genomics in the state of California. The Stanford Administrative Core for the Center of Excellence in Stem Cell Genomics (CESCG) has been established and is responsible for overseeing joint center activities and the administration of center-initiated projects (CIP) 1 and 2, and several collaborative research projects (CRP). In the fourth year of the award the CESCG administration organized monthly telephone conference calls to share research progress and coordinate activities across the center. On May 17th-18th, 2018 the CESCG held its fourth annual stem cell genomic CIRM retreat at Salk Institute. CIP1 has collected 289 blood samples in total and generated a valuable resource of 249 induced pluripotent stem cell lines. Whole genome sequencing from the first batch of 207 iPSCs has been completed and data analyzed. CIP1 has also differentiated 49 iPSCs into cardiomyocytes and treated them with various drugs followed by RNA-Seq. CIP2 has finished the collection of pancreas cells studied by patch-clamp cells and followed by single-cell RNA-seq. They have collected over 1,000 cells that passed quality control after sequencing, including over 300 cells from type-2 diabetes donors. Additional improvements have been made to the TCL-Seq method. The single-cell mRNA-seq pipeline has been cost reduced, and the throughput has been dramatically increased. In addition, a manuscript drafting on fetal pancreas is underway. All other CRP collaborators have made a significant progress in their projects. These research projects from the CIPs and CRPs will transform stem cell research in California and continue its preeminence in this area.