EECS 1520 Lecture Notes - Shinya Yamanaka, Myc, Stem Cell
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In 2006, shinya yamanaka and kazutoshi takahashi of kyoto university in japan successfully prepared stem-like cells, which can develop into almost any of the body"s cell types, from adult mouse skin cells. The technique involved reprogramming" the skin cells by introducing four specific genes using retroviruses, and provided a means of obtaining stem-like cells without using eggs or destroying embryos. In 2007, yamanaka and his colleagues went one better, successfully reproducing the experiment with human skin cells. The recipe works because the additional genes function as high-level regulators, turning on other genes and thereby setting off a cascade of intracellular changes. Later, the group reported that it had eliminated the cancer- causing gene c-myc from the list of introduced genes, a research boon along the path towards patientmatched stem-cell therapies. James thomson of the university of wisconsin-madison and his co-workers also published a c-myc-free method.