Directed differentiation

Directed differentiation is a bioengineering methodology at the interface of stem cell biology, developmental biology and tissue engineering. It is essentially harnessing the potential of stem cells by constraining their differentiation in vitro toward a specific cell type or tissue of interest. Stem cells are by definition pluripotent, able to differentiate into several cell types such as neurons, cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, etc. Efficient directed differentiation requires a detailed understanding of the lineage and cell fate decision, often provided by developmental biology. During differentiation, pluripotent cells make a number of developmental decisions to generate first the three germ layers (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm) of the embryo and intermediate progenitors, followed by subsequent decisions or check points, giving rise to all the body's mature tissues. The differentiation process can be modeled as sequence of binary decisions based on probabilistic or stochastic models. Developmental biology and embryology provides the basic knowledge of the cell types' differentiation through mutation analysis, lineage tracing, embryo micro-manipulation and gene expression studies. Cell differentiation and tissue organogenesis involve a limited set of developmental signaling pathways. It is thus possible to direct cell fate by controlling cell decisions through extracellular signaling, mimicking developmental signals. Directed differentiation is primarily applied to pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) of mammalian origin, in particular mouse and human cells for biomedical research applications. Since the discovery of embryonic stem (ES) cells (1981) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (2006), source material is potentially unlimited. Historically, embryonic carcinoma (EC) cells have also been used. Fibroblasts or other differentiated cell types have been used for direct reprogramming strategies. Cell differentiation involves a transition from a proliferative mode toward differentiation mode.

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Directed differentiation

Induced pluripotent stem cell

Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi in Kyoto, Japan, who together showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific genes (named Myc, Oct3/4, Sox2 and Klf4), collectively known as Yamanaka factors, encoding transcription factors could convert somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells.

Tissue engineering

Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. Tissue engineering often involves the use of cells placed on tissue scaffolds in the formation of new viable tissue for a medical purpose but is not limited to applications involving cells and tissue scaffolds.

BIO-679: Practical - Suter Lab

Bioluminescence imaging and data analysis Splinkerette PCR (to analyze genomic insertion site of a transgene). The students will obtain theoretical and practical insight into embryonic stem cell biol

Explores early embryogenesis, ES cell differentiation, disease modeling, neuronal function, genome editing, 'minibrains', in vitro retina and intestine, single-cell analysis, and lineage tracing.

Covers the essentials of stem cell biology, including major types, properties, and applications, as well as challenges in research.

Explores the complexity of cancer, challenges in research translation, and the applications of tissue engineering for cancer models and drug screening.