SPP 1356: Pluripotency and Cellular Reprogramming

Basic data for this project

Description

Research on cellular pluripotency is one of the most challenging and promising research fields in biomedicine. The potential to reprogramme cells into any type of adult stem cell for the purpose of cell replacement therapy holds tremendous therapeutic implications and may circumvent current ethical considerations surrounding the derivation of new human embryonic stem cells for research and clinical applications. The molecular pathways controlling pluripotency and cellular reprogramming are now only beginning to be understood. A thorough understanding of regulatory pathways on the molecular level in pluripotent cells is essential for the development of effective and rational approaches to induce pluripotential reprogramming and direct pluripotent cells into specific differentiation pathways. The Priority Programme will focus on two key areas crucial for the understanding of pluripotency and reprogramming: (1) the identification and characterisation of genetic and epigenetic networks that control pluripotency, i.e. the molecular basis for pluripotency, and (2) the mechanisms governing the reinstatement of pluripotency in a differentiated cell. Therefore, the work schedule of the interdisciplinary Priority Programme includes (1) the identification of novel as well as unsuspected genes and factors regulating pluripotency, (2) the determination of molecular interconnections between the genetic and epigenetic pathways regulating pluripotency, (3) the determination of the association between global and local chromatin nuclear structure and the regulation of pluripotency and (4) the identification of practical and effective strategies to induce and regulate pluripotency by nuclear reprogramming, cell fusion and extrinsic factors.