Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 7, 2006|Volume 34, Number 25


BULLETIN HOME

VISITING ON CAMPUS

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

IN THE NEWS

BULLETIN BOARD

CLASSIFIED ADS


SEARCH ARCHIVES

DEADLINES

DOWNLOAD FORMS

BULLETIN STAFF


PUBLIC AFFAIRS HOME

NEWS RELEASES

E-MAIL US


YALE HOME PAGE


Team discovers minimal nutritional
'recipe' for growing stem cells

Researchers at Yale have established the minimal nutritional requirements for growing and maintaining human embryonic stem cells, a "recipe" that is critical for clinical application and for developmental studies, according to an early online report this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) divide continuously over many generations and have the potential to differentiate into many different cell types. For hESCs to be useful in the clinic, the nutrient mix they are grown in must be free of components that may contain toxins, viruses or materials that might cause an immune response.

Led by Michael Snyder, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, the team of researchers has documented a simple mix they call "hESC cocktail," or HESCO, that contains only purified recombinant, chemically-synthesized or purified human factors to support the cell growth.

The researchers based success of the "recipe" on how well the hESCs were able to preserve their growth characteristics and stem cell markers. To be successful, the "cocktail" also had to maintain normal cell chromosome profiles, or karyotypes, in the cells and fully support the ability of the cells to differentiate.

"Use of a minimal medium that is sufficient for the embryonic stem cell growth is expected to make clinical application possible and facilitate developmental studies," according to Jean Lu, a postdoctoral associate and first author on the paper. "Cells incubated in HESCO are easy to grow in an undifferentiated state and can be readily induced to differentiate into all the three basic cell lineages."

The final cocktail for HESCO, that actively supports hESC self-renewal, contains the growth factor Wnt3, basic fibroblast growth factor, insulin, transferrin, the
B-cell activating factor April/BAFF, cholesterol and albumin.

Co-authors on the paper were Carmen Jane Booth and Shih-Hung Yang from Yale and Runhua Hou from the Hospital of Saint Raphael. This work was supported by grants from the Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. Yale's Office of Cooperative Research (OCR) manages intellectual assets created at the University, and a patent application covering this subject matter has been filed. Further information on licensing agreements is available at ocr@yale.edu or at www.yale.edu/ocr/.

-- By Janet Rettig Emanuel


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Campus preparing for visit by China's President Hu Jintao

Yale's Homebuyer Program extended

University putting out a welcome mat for the public on April 8

Trip to Sierra Leone offers students a lesson in power of the human spirit

Yale affiliates to team up for community service projects

Study shows conscious and unconscious memory linked . . ,

Research suggests brain compensates for aging . . .

Hartford students learn about DNA during Yale outing

Team discovers minimal nutritional 'recipe' for growing stem cells

New company will use Yale technology in treatment for varicose veins

Naltrexone may help reduce weight gain in smokers trying to quit

Identification of single pain receptor may lead to creation of new therapies.

Yale Press announces new Yale Younger Poet . . .

Conference to examine issues facing youths in the juvenile justice system

Making introductions

Lecture explores Cushing's photographic legacy

Yale Books in Brief


Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News

Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines

Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home