Azra Fatima
University of Cologne, Germany
Title: Reprogramming of Somatic Cells to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Viral Vectors for Regenerative Medicine Therapy
Biography
Biography: Azra Fatima
Abstract
Human somatic cells can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). iPS cells have a regenerative potential similar to that of human embryonic stem cells (ES cells), which may serve as source of cells for tissue repair (transplantation), in-vitro disease modelling and drug toxicity assays. A number of methods have been developed for converting adult somatic cells into a pluripotent from which ethically acceptable patient specific mature cells of interest can be derived. Successful reprogramming of skin fibroblasts to iPS cells can be achieved by ectopic expression of stemness factors. Here, I will discuss the various conventional methods of reprogramming using lenti-virus, retro-virus, adeno-virus and sendai-virus as a viral vectors. These methods although had a lot of disadvantages but led to fast progress in the stem cell research fields. The pros and cons of the use of viruses for reprogramming will be discussed with the advancement in the field a lot of non-viral approaches, which has been recently introduced.