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Stem Cell "Master Gene" Found
nexex writes "From the Washington Post, 'Scientists yesterday said they have discovered a long-sought "master gene" in embryonic stem cells that is largely responsible for giving those cells their unique regenerative and therapeutic potential.' The report summarizes an article in the newest issue of the scientific journal, Cell."
And was posted on May 30 Link follows: Here
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
The article suggests that in the near term, this will actually boost the need for research on embryos, to figure out how this "nanog" stuff works...
However, it does mean that (hopefully) down the track, those things which can now only be cured with embryonic transplants will be curable with alternative techniques...
Happy to answer any other queries on the subject (have been following the subject *VERY* closely for a few years now... Also working in bioinformatics this month...)
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Stem cells don't automatically grow into babies - if that were the case, this'd be the Easy Route to human cloning.
An in-depth look into what stem cells are, can be found here.
They answer that in the article:
"THE DISCOVERY of the gene brings scientists closer to a holy grail of biology: the ability to turn ordinary cells into those that possess all the biomedical potency of human embryonic stem cells, eliminating the need to destroy embryos to get them.
Researchers cautioned that the new work (...) will not bring a quick end to the political controversy over human embryo research."
They even say that it might intensify research on embryos, for now.
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Does anybody have the Locus Link ID,
Unigene ID, official HUGO name or even
the genomic coordinates for
the NANOG gene?
However, I seem to recall some successes in among the spectacular failures... The only thing I can turn up seems to be this rather cryptic link (scan down to point 3) which alludes to the successes I (think I) can remember... It was a while ago though, before I was following this... So my memory may be unclear, or I may be hyping this more than it deserves... I will be back in touch if I find a more concrete reference...
Also, there has been considerably less research on the embryonic stemcells than the adult variants, because of the moral difficulties, which may partly explain why there are more successes with the latter...
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Since they've now apparently isolated this gene, isn't it kind of like having "root" access to stem cells?
:-)
Not quite. Because you know which gene is responsible does not mean you know how to 1) activate it, 2) turn it off, 3) modulate it's activity. All three of these possibilities will be different in various tissues that may have differing rates of turnover. Take for instance lung tissue versus neural tissue. Lung tissue turns over quite a bit from stem cell populations, whereas neural tissue does not (well mostly does not).
The whole genomics world is just the beginning in that there will be a whole post-genomics world where scientists need to figure out how all of the code works. We just now are getting to the point where we know what the code is and its general order, but we do not know how all of it works. It's like reverse engineering a system where we are not certain of all of the rules by which the system is constructed. With computer code at least, one can know the general order of code, its structure and execution. Bioscience is more......slippery.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
There's a cool song about stem cell research by Dream Theater, called "The Great Debate", off "Six Degrees of Turbulance" - I suggest checking it out =)
~Berj
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
I'm not very knowledgeable about stem cells, but I read the Chambers et al. paper (but not Mitsui et al.), and I think I understand the main points and if I'm wrong hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me.
Mouse embryonic stem cells use a couple of factors- gp130 signalling, Oct4, and Nanog to retain their state as stem cells. Chambers et al. showed that that raising the levels of Nanog allows embryonic stem cells to maintain their "stemness"- their undifferentiated state- in the abscence of gp130 signalling. If you remove nanog, then whether the embryonic cells remained stem cells or became more specialized would probably depend on the levels of gp130 signalling, although it seems that nanog may be the limiting factor.
~Phillip