Project description
An easy protocol for generating iPSCs
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cells that emerge from the reprogramming of somatic cells through the ectopic overexpression of defined growth factors. Many protocols for iPSC generation involve the genetic delivery of these growth factors by viral and non-viral vectors. However, most protocols are laborious and maintain cells in expensive culture media. The EU funded EASY-IPS project proposes a simpler and highly reproducible protocol for producing iPSCs using helper-dependent adenovirus vectors. Given that iPSCs are a powerful tool for modelling human disease and can be projected to serve as a regenerative cell source, the proposed protocol will help expand the applications of these cells.
Objective
The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has provided a major advance in biomedical research as they are able to offer meaningful models to investigate human diseases and biology. A growing number of research laboratory are using iPSC for studying a wide variety of human diseases. iPSC have also tremendous potential for regenerative medicine because they can be virtually differentiated in any type of cell. Through the support of the ERC grant IEMTx, we built-up an in-house protocol for generation of iPSC from patients’ cell lines that is efficient and has an extremely low cost compared to other available methods with the highest clinical safety. Therefore, we can offer a superior system to produce iPSC based on a simpler, more efficient, highly reproducible, cost effective and customizable process. Moreover, HDAd have potential also for cell trans-differentiation that is the reprogramming of one somatic cell type into another cell type without passing through the pluripotent state. In summary, the goal of this proposal is to pave the way towards commercialization of our novel products for generating iPSC and trans-differentiated cell lines based on HDAd vectors as non-integrating, high-cloning capacity, inexpensive and easy to use vectors. We believe this method will become a relevant opportunity for biomedical research and might find applications in regenerative medicine as well.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantHost institution
00185 Roma
Italy