ASCC scores iPS cells

Scientists from the Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) will be the first in Australia to gain access to human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from Professor James Thompson of the University of Wisconsin.

The iPS cells have been imported under an agreement with Thomson, who has developed the human iPS cell lines and was, at the same time as Professor Shinya Yamanaka from the University of Kyoto, the first to describe human iPS cells in November 2007.

Thomson was also the first scientist to identify and describe human embryonic stem cells in the scientific press in 1998 and has been a leader in the field of embryonic stem cell research since.

Both scientists use retroviruses to insert genes into human skin cells to reprogram them. Each uses slightly different genes in the procedure.

The human iPS cells arrived at the ASCC's Melbourne laboratories in late May. Drs Andrew Laslett and Naoki Nakayama, both senior scientists in the human embryonic stem cell laboratory, will be the first at the ASCC to work with them.

"We plan to comprehensively compare the iPS cell lines to existing human embryonic stem cell lines using the first class scientific infrastructure and innovative characterisation and differentiation strategies in place at the Australian Stem Cell Centre," Laslett said.

"These experiments will give us a greater understanding of the relative utility, advantages and potential barriers to the clinical use of iPS cells as compared directly to human embryonic stem cells."