Date of Graduation
5-2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Ye, Kaiming
Committee Member/Reader
Griffis, Carl L.
Committee Member/Second Reader
Carrier, Julie
Abstract
Human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells present the opportunity to advance tissue engineering and regenerative medicine for treating many diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, and cancer. In recent years, stem cell research has made progress in advancing cell therapy techniques. Similar to human embryonic stem (hES) cells, hiPS cells can differentiate into the three germ layers, which include mesorderm, ectoderm, and endoderm. Thus, they have the potential of being differentiated into all types of cells that are required for tissue repair and regeneration. The advantage that hiPS cells have over hES cells is that they can be generated from patients’ own cell sources. For example, they can be generated from somatic cells such as foreskin, skin cells, etc. Therefore, their utility for cell therapy could potentially eliminate the immune rejection that is inherent to hES cell-based cell therapies under current medical settings. Of particular interest, hiPS cell generation does not require the use of human embryos, which eliminates the moral and ethical concerns about hES cell research. However, the generation of hiPS cells from somatic cells still poses significant technical challenge. The efficiency of hiPS cell generation has been extremely low in the lab. While the use of viralvectors for inducing the nuclear reprogramming has shown remarkable benefits in increasing the nuclear reprogramming efficiency, the use of oncogenes in these processes could potentially lead to the development of cancers in recipients who receive the transplantation of hiPS cell-derived cells during cell replacement therapy. To address these issues, a number of non-viral vector strategies have been explored and developed recently. Among these techniques, the use of transcription factors for nuclear reprogramming has been drawn lots of attentions. In order to use these transcription factors for nuclear reprogramming, one will have to be able to produce them in the laboratory. In this work, we explore the feasibility of producing these transcription factors from Pichia pastoris.
Keywords
Human induced pluripotent stem; stem cell research; cell therapy
Citation
Blazic, N. (2011). Generation of human iPS cells using direct reprogramming proteins. Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/baeguht/12
