

Researchers Hack Blood cells into Stem Cells - thatmiddleway
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-blood-cells-stem-cell-state.html

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stephengillie
Link to article? (I think it's the right one)

[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011373)

 _These T-cell derived iPSCs (“TiPS”) retain a normal karyotype and genetic
identity to the donor. They share common characteristics with human embryonic
stem cells (hESCs) with respect to morphology, pluripotency-associated marker
expression and capacity to generate neurons, cardiomyocytes, and hematopoietic
progenitor cells. Additionally, they retain their characteristic T-cell
receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements, a property which could be exploited for
iPSC clone tracking and T-cell development studies._

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win32
I think this is the article referred to in the article:

[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0042838)

And here is the other article, referred to as "Chapter One", where the
researchers differentiate the induced blood stem cells into heart cells:

[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018293)

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jostmey
Yes, this is really cool. But it is an improvement on earlier techniques:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell>

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sp332
There are new techniques involved here.

 _Generally, out of hundreds of blood cells, only one or two might turn into
iPS cells. Using Zambidis' method, 50 to 60 percent of blood cells were
engineered into iPS cells._

 _Traditionally, scientists use viruses to deliver a package of genes to cells
to turn on processes that convert the cells from one type (such as skin or
blood) back to stem cell states. Zambidis' team uses plasmids, rings of DNA
that replicate briefly inside cells and then degrade._

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jostmey
Sure, Zambidis' group used electroporation to deliver the genes that convert
adult cells back to a stem cell. But it appears that is the only new thing
that they did. The 4 genes that they delivered to revert the adult cells back
to stem cells were discovered back in 2006 by Yamanaka's group. It is the 4
genes that do all the magic, and identifying those genes was the really
amazing step forward in the field.

Electroporation, which it looks like what Zambidis et al used, is not without
problems too.

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pfisch
So is anything not "hacking" anymore? Or can we just use that verb for
anything?

If so then I'm hacking pretty hard in this comment section right now.

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Jimmie
By 2050 the set of all verbs will be pared down to just "hacking" and
"trolling".

