Phenotyping cardiomyocytes derived from iPS Cells

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The development of inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from differentiated somatic cells such as dermal fibroblasts about 8 years ago has revolutionized many fields of biology and medicine. The discovery of the technique to make this possible won Shinya Yamanaka the Nobel prize in 2012 and has spawned an incredible scientific endeavor since it was first published. iPSCs can be differentiated into many different cell types and still remain the same genotype as the origin donor cells. In this proposal we will, in collaboration with StemCell Technologies Inc. a privately-owned biotechnology company based in Vancouver, differentiate cells into cardiomyocytes and phenotype the resultant cells to ensure that they possess many of the properties of functioning and mature cardiac contractile cells. The experiments will focus on newly developed sophisticated techniques to characterize the cells to ensure that they have been reprogrammed to become heart cells or cardiomyocytes.