Australia induces stem cell line

Australia’s first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines have been created by Victorian and NSW scientists.

Led by Monash Institute of Medical Research’s Dr Paul Verma and Professor Bernie Tuch from the University of NSW, the collaboration has created iPS cells from adult skin cells.

iPS cells are reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells using a cocktail of different genes inserted by retroviruses.

Australian researchers have had access to iPS cell lines from stem cell research pioneer James Thomson’s lab at the University of Wisconsin since an agreement was signed last year, but these are the first cells produced here in Australia.

Verma said the ability to investigate any human disease, rather than relying on disease-specific cell lines from other labs, was significant.

“In addition, each iPS cell line generated from the same adult cells appears to be subtly different,” Verma said in a statement.

“We are keen to investigate these differences between iPS lines, which would be impossible to do if we had to rely on cells provided by other laboratories.”

The work is part of a wider project announced last year, in which each state government contributed $455,000 for collaborative stem cell research, with another $550,000 granted to Sydney IVF and the Australian Stem Cell Centre for a joint project to compare cell lines generated using somatic cell nuclear transfer, embryonic stem cells and iPS cells.