Year 6 NCE

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 No-Cost Extension (NCE) period of the award, the CESCG administration organized monthly conference calls of CIP1 and coordinated activities of CRP projects that requested NCE. CIP1 completed the reprogramming of the biobank of 300 iPSC lines, generated the WGS of these lines, and identified candidate mutations for 30% of diseased lines. CIP1 also differentiated about half of the biobank into cardiomyocytes and treated them with various drugs followed by RNA-seq, and identified genes correlated with both disease and contractility. CIP2 completed their aims at the end of the last reporting period and did not require a NCE. All other CRP collaborators that requested a NCE have completed their sequencing projects. These research projects from the CIPs and CRPs have led to more than 40 publications and several bioinformatics tools that will transform stem cell research in California and continue its preeminence in this area.