Disease Focus: Cancer
Generation of clinical grade human iPS cells
The therapeutic use of stem cells depends on the availability of pluripotent cells that are not limited by technical, ethical or immunological considerations. The goal of this proposal is to develop and bank safe and well-characterized patient-specific pluripotent stem cell lines that can be used to study and potentially ameliorate human diseases. Several groups, including […]
Mechanisms to maintain the self-renewal and genetic stability of human embryonic stem cells
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are capable of unlimited self-renewal, a process to reproduce self, and retain the ability to differentiate into all cell types in the body. Therefore, hESCs hold great promise for human cell and tissue replacement therapy. Because DNA damage occurs during normal cellular proliferation and can cause DNA mutations leading to […]
Role of the tumor suppressor gene, p16INK4a, in regulating stem cell phenotypes in embryonic stem cells and human epithelial cells.
The roles of stem cells are to generate the organs of the body during development and to stand ready to repair those organs through repopulation after injury. In some cases these properties are not correctly regulated and cells with stem cell properties expand in number. Recent work is demonstrating that the genes that control stem […]
The APOBEC3 Gene Family as Guardians of Genome Stability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells
The successful use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as novel regenerative therapies for a spectrum of currently incurable diseases critically depends upon the safety of such cell transfers. hESCs contain roughly 3 million “jumping genes” or mobile genetic retroelements that comprise up to 45% of their genetic material. While many of these retroelements have […]
Genetic Enhancement of the Immune Response to Melanoma via hESC-derived T cells
The overall goal of the proposed studies is to utilize human gene therapy approach using human embryonic stem cells to direct our body’s defenses to specifically attack melanoma tumor cells. Current technologies try to accomplish this by genetically manipulating certain circulating T lymphocytes, such that they will target tumor cells. T lymphocytes are the major […]
Using human embryonic stem cells to treat radiation-induced stem cell loss: Benefits vs cancer risk
A variety of stem cells exist in humans throughout life and maintain their ability to divide and change into multiple cell types. Different types of adult derived stem cells occur throughout the body, and reside within specific tissues that serve as a reserve pool of cells that can replenish other cells lost due to aging, […]
Screening for Oncogenic Epigenetic Alterations in Human ES Cells
Embryonic stem cell-based therapies hold great promise for the treatment of many human diseases. These therapeutic strategies involve the culture and manipulation of embryonic stem cells grown outside the human body. Culture conditions outside the human body can encourage the development of changes to the cells that facilitate rapid and sustained cell growth. Some of […]
Sources of Genetic Instability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells.
The constant exposure of cells to endogenous and exogenous agents that inflict DNA damage requires active repair processes to eliminate potentially mutagenic events in stem cells leading to cancer. The same agents menace early human embryos with DNA damage that can ultimately lead to mutations, cancer, and birth defects. In vitro, human embryonic stem cells […]
Functions of RB family proteins in human embryonic stem cells
Nearly one out of every two Californians born today will develop cancer at some point in their lives, and it is likely that one in five persons will die of the disease. We propose to study the mechanisms of action of the RB gene, which is mutated in a broad range of human cancers, including […]
hESC as tools to investigate the neural crest origin of Ewing’s sarcoma
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) hold great promise as sources of tissue for regenerative medicine and therapeutics. In addition, their utility as tools to study the origins and biology of human disease must not be underestimated. hESC give rise to tissue-specific adult stem cells and, ultimately, to all mature tissues in the body. As such, […]