Laboratory of Shinya Yamanaka

Dr. Yamanaka is the latest addition to the GICD faculty. His laboratory studies the biology of stem cells and recently made the breakthrough discovery that a set of four factors can reprogram mature adult cells into pluripotent stem cells. These induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are nearly identical to embryonic stem cells and can even be used to generate live mice entirely derived from the iPS cells—a key feature of truly pluripotent cells. Dr. Yamanaka’s work has been featured in both the scientific and lay press as it offers a realistic method for deriving patient-specific human pluripotent stem cells without the ethically-debated requirement of donor oocytes or destruction of embryos. He will be pursuing the translation of his initial findings into the human system at the Gladstone Institutes.

The “Yamanaka Method” may be valuable to generate patient-specific iPS cell lines that one day may be used to treat disease. This method bypasses the need for donor oocytes and may directly generate human iPS cells from mature adult fibroblasts or other cell types. Patient-specific iPS cells could be expanded in culture indefinitely and differentiated into any cell type in the body or used to create organs or tissues to be reimplanted into the patient.