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Learn the Skinny on iPS Cells in Neurodegenerative Disease

( 4 Articles Available, 0 Articles Pending )

Are you curious about trying iPS cell lines to model the disease you care about? Intrigued but nebulous on where the field is at? Ready to grow an iPS line but not sure where to turn? Read Madolyn Rogers's four-part series to learn all about who does what, which lines are going to be available when and where, and why and how they were made.

Rogers did not stop at the five Ws, though. She also reported the technical and scientific challenges this burgeoning field faces at present. Do those lines model Alzheimer's? Parkinson's? ALS? How pluripotent are iPS cells? Are the lines validated against an agreed-upon control? Read all, and be better off planning your research.

Image caption: Dopamine-producing neurons made from iPS cells derived from a Parkinson's patient. Image credit:: Frank Soldner and Dirk Hockemeyer/Whitehead Institute.

Where in the World Are the iPS Cells?

Since the discovery, in 2006, that adult cells could be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state, scientists have been excited by the potential of these cells for modeling diseases, screening drugs, and even for cell replacement therapy. The promise of...

Not So Fast: iPS Cells Have Potential Pitfalls

Since the 2006 discovery by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi at Kyoto University, Japan, that just four transcription factors could reprogram mouse fibroblasts to a pluripotent state, induced pluripotent stem cells have created excitement a...