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SUMMARY:Towards a transcriptional taxonomy of in vitro stem cell preparati
 ons - Franz-Josef Müller (University of Kiel / The Scripps Research Insti
 tute)
DTSTART:20090907T150000Z
DTEND:20090907T160000Z
UID:TALK18783@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Laura Blackburn
DESCRIPTION:Human self-renewing multipotent and pluripotent stem cells tha
 t can be expanded in culture hold great promise for understanding and trea
 ting human disease. The commonly utilized characterization of stem cells i
 n vitro with only a few stem cell markers and with some functional assays\
 , like the teratoma assay\, is underapprechiating the fact that there are 
 important differences among seemingly “identical” stem cell preparatio
 ns.\n\nIn order to better understand the molecular control of stem cell ph
 enotypes\, we performed comprehensive studies examining genome wide transc
 riptional profiles on a large and diverse set of samples of human neural\,
  embryonic\, induced pluripotent stem cells and pluripotent embryonal carc
 inoma cell lines.  \n\nThis database – termed *Stem Cell Matrix* - allow
 ed us to discover with a purely data driven approach clusters of diverse s
 tem cell types based on global gene expression that distinguish human embr
 yonic stem cell preparations from more restricted stem cell and progenitor
  populations. \n\nWe found for example\, that pluripotent stem cells can b
 e defined by means of an unique transcriptional phenotype in global gene e
 xpression data. This phenotype can also be discovered with other genome-wi
 de profiling technologies\, such as whole genome methylation and miRNA –
 profiling. \n\nThis algorithm could find its first application in identify
 ing successfully reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cell preparations w
 ithout cumbersome and strenuous animal experimentation like it is required
  for the teratoma assay.\n\nWe used further bioinformatic analysis to unco
 ver a protein–protein network (*PluriNet*) consisting of interacting pro
 teins that is shared by the pluripotent cells. Analysis of published data 
 showed that this protein interaction network appears to be a common charac
 teristic of many types of pluripotent cells\, including murine embryonic s
 tem cells and induced pluripotent cells and human oocytes\, is preserved a
 cross species boundaries and recapitulates many recent discoveries in ESC 
 and iPSC research.\n\nOur proof of principle study demonstrates that large
 -scale high throughput approaches such as whole genome transcriptional pro
 filing are a valuable method to characterize and monitor stem cell prepara
 tions. This approach is analogous to taxonomical approaches that have been
  historically used to classify zoological specimens. \n\n
LOCATION:Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute\, Lecture Theatre
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