Year 2

Patients with Parkinson’s disease have malfunctioning or dying dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Human embryonic stem cells can be differentiated into DA neurons for transplantation with the potential to cure this disease, yet the differentiation mechanism is not very clear. A nuclear hormone receptor named Nurr1 is found to regulate the differentiation process. To study the regulation mechanism, we proposed to genetically incorporate nonnatural amino acids into Nurr1 in stem cells, and use the novel properties of these amino acids to identify the interacting protein partners of Nurr1. Once these partners are discovered, effective protocols can be developed to generate high purity DA neurons for therapeutic purposes. In the past year, we made significant progress in genetically inserting nonnatural amino acids in stem cells. We are in the process of making stem cell lines that have this capacity. We also set up functional assays for studying Nurr1 and its mutants containing nonnatural amino acids. These results paved the way for our future identification of Nurr1 interacting networks in stem cells.