BENG 87 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cell Signaling, Homeobox Protein Nanog, Collagen
Document Summary
There are four different naturally occurring types of stem cells that we have talked about so far. Of the four, the totipotent zygote stem cells, and the pluripotent embryonic stem cells both destroy an embryo. However, with the discovery of the induced pluripotent stem cell (ipsc), scientists are about to access and use stem cells that exhibit pluripotent behavior without destroying an embryo. There ipscs can be personalized, meaning the genome is preserved. The genome contains all the genes in the dna, including information on genetic risk factors that scientists often want to study. ipscs are created by activating dormant, non dividing adult cells. This is done by giving these cells a cocktail of four specific proteins (c-myc, kif4, nanog, and sox^2) that attach to the. Dna and tell the cells to start dividing. During this process, the cells start to look more like embryonic stem cells, and turn into ipscs.
