23 Jul MULTIPOTENT STEM CELL-BASED CULTURE SYSTEMS AND MODELS
Abstract
This invention generally relates to multipotent stem cell-based research tools. More particularly, the present invention relates to culture systems and 3-dimensional tissue models that may be used for identifying agents useful for treating diseases and conditions and that are suitable for high throughput screening applications. This present invention is based, in part, on the discovery of a method for propagating multipotent stem cells from human skin fibroblasts and subsequently differentiating those multipotent stem cells into cells of any of the three germ layers. Aspects of the invention include drug discovery tools as a high throughput screen; 3-dimensional tissue engineering model, and drug discovery tools thereof; research tools for identifying genes that are important for acquiring multipotency and for identifying genes that are important for lineage-specific differentiation, and drug discovery tools thereof; diagnostic tools for identifying defective genes; and autologous therapies based on the propagated multipotent stem cells.
Year: 2013
Country: US
Doc No: 2013274114