Gene and Cell Therapy for Diabetes and Hypertensive Heart Disease - Yasuhiro Ikeda

Derivation of Genomic Modification-free iPS Cells Using Nonintegrating Vectors

For clinical applications of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, safe and efficient reprogramming strategies are necessary. Although integrating retroviral and lentiviral vectors are typically used to generate iPS cells, use of integrating vectors in reprogramming inherently possesses the risks of insertional mutagenesis and sustained c-MYC overexpression.

Dr. Ikeda's lab has generated genomic modification-free iPS cells without using integrating vectors. The lab is analyzing the differences between iPS clones made with integrating and nonintegrating vectors for their propensity for pluripotency, teratoma formation and pancreatic differentiation.