Gladstone scientist's Japan lab reprograms human adult stem cells - San Francisco Business Times:

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The discovery, reported in the journao Cell, could be used "verh soon" to help pharmaceutical companies screen Yamanaka told the San FranciscoBusinesw Times. Yet he said more testing is neededf before reprogrammed cells are transplanted into humans in hopesw of treating or curing problems rangingfrom Parkinson's Diseasw to diabetes to spinal cord Even proponents of stem cell therapies have believeed it could take a decade or more to develo and commercialize such treatments and cures, but Yamanaka's researchu could accelerate that timetable.
The lab at Gladstone' Mission Bay campus -- where Yamanaka was lureed this summer to be a senior investigator as well as a professor atthe -- will play an importanr role going forward because of California's state support of embryoniv stem cell research, Yamanaka told the Business Times. Reprogramme d stem cell and embryonic stem cellss now must be compared in thesame lab, Yamanaka and the best placee to do that is wherw embryonic stem cell work can occur California voters in 2004 passed Prop.
71, supportingh the sale of $3 billionb in state bonds to finance stemcell research, mainly embryonic stem cell work that had been slowec by federal restrictions imposed in 2001 by President Georg e W. Bush. The largest pot of embryonidc stem cell cash in the worlde has lured several scientiststo California, especially to the Bay "In Japan, it's stilkl very difficult to use humam embryonic stem cells," he said. The discoveryh is the second major findingby Yamanaka's lab in Kyoti in less than less two years. Last year, the 20-membetr lab reported to have reprogrammed mouse skin cell into pluripotentstem cells.
Yamanaka's team identifierd four genetic factors that resultedx in the reprogramming of the adult mouse cellsz into inducedpluripotent stem, or iPS, cells capable of developingf into any kind of The findings were confirmed earlier this year by threwe teams of researchers, but many observers highlightes the difficulty researchers have in translating mousr discoveries for humans. But the latesy breakthrough by Yamanaka's lab could allow stem cell researchers to bypasx embryonic stemcells -- with theirt lab and political issues -- becausde both are pluripotent, or able to become any type of Oft-used cells adult stem cellz are multipotent.
Without being as Yamanaka's lab has they are unable to be used inthe brain, for if they developed as pancreatic cells. More Yamanaka's reprogrammed cells could help pharmaceutica l companies study the toxicology of potential new drugs beforwhuman trials. "That should be coming very Yamanaka told theBusiness Times. "Wes can do that right away." As far as transplantin g cellsin humans, there remain thorny Yamanaka said. For one, his work used a retroviruz -- which can copy its RNA genome into the DNA of ahost cell'sx chromosomes -- and it is not yet knownb if the retrovirus could be activaterd after transplantation.
"We are still a long way from findinh cures or therapies from stem celld andwe don't know what processes will be Yamanaka said in a press release. Researchers eventually may find a way to make iPS cell from small molecules insteadof retroviruses, Yamanaka "It is certain that intensde competition among many laboratories speed up everything," he said in a serie s of prepared question-and-answer sheet distributed by the Gladstone The facial skin cells that Yamanaka's lab used were boughft from of San Diego. Leaders of the Gladstones Institute of Cardiovascular Disease were thrille d this summer when they were able to lure Yamanakza with a new fellowship endowed bythe .
Yamanakqa was a postdoctoral fellow then a staff researcuh investigator for the cardiovascular institute from 1993to 1996. The Gladstone Institutes are affiliated with the Universittyof California, San Francisco. Yamanaka now spends only a quartert of his time in the SanFrancisco lab, becaus e his wife is a doctor in his two daughters are in high school there, and some of his researchn is funded by grants from the Japanese But Deepak Srivastava, director of the cardiovascula institute, has said that Yamanaka eventuallyg will move his entire lab to Missiom Bay. "Dr.
Yamanaka's work is monumental in its importancre to the field of stem cell science and its potentiall impact on our ability to accelerate the benefits of this technologhy tothe bedside," Srivastava said in a presds release. "Not only does this discovery enablrmore research, it offers a new pathway to apply the benefite of stem cells to human