Lecture 3: Coaxing Embryonic Stem Cells
by Douglas A. Melton, Ph.D.
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Welcome by HHMI Program Director Dr. Dennis Liu
Dr. Douglas Melton on teaching
Stem cells and cloning
Cloning animals depends on reprogramming cells
Plants: The original cloned organism
Cloning frogs by nuclear transplantation
Frogs were the first adult cloned animal
The first cloned mammal: Dolly the sheep
Video: Cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)
Many types of animals have been cloned
Cloning shows that differentiation can be reversed
Q&A: Is the clone's surrogate mother different on purpose?
Q&A: Do clones have any deformities?
Q&A: Do clones have a greater risk of cancer?
Q&A: Why did the cloned cows have different markings?
Q&A: In SCNT, why doesn't the nucleus change the cell?
Q&A: Do cloned animals have similar personalities?
Combining cloning and stem cells for studying disease
Characteristics of degenerative diseases
Specific cells affected by degenerative diseases
Pancreatic β cells and type 1 diabetes
Can cultured ES cells differentiate to pancreatic β cells?
Interactions between different cells affect differentiation
Blood vessel proximity and pancreatic β cells
Molecular signals for each differentiation step are unknown
Deriving motor neurons from ES cells
Motor neurons derived from ES cells are functional
Challenges in studying degenerative diseases
Animation: Combining SCNT and ES cells
Creating ALS-diseased cells by SCNT for research
Using ES cells to study ALS development
Using ES cells to screen for effective treatments
Two approaches to using ES cells to study diseases
Q&A: Would the lack of diversity in cloned cows cause problems?
Q&A: Are there cells that can't be used for cloning?
Q&A: How do you treat prion-based degenerative diseases?
Q&A: Are there only two factors for motorneuron differentiation?
Q&A: Why didn't the chick embryo reject mouse motorneurons?
Q&A: How would you deliver ES cells to an adult patient?
Q&A: Degenerative diseases that affect two cell types?
Q&A: Could cells be reprogrammed to prevent cancer?
Closing remarks by HHMI Program Director Dr. Dennis Liu