Genomic integrity of human pluripotent stem cells
Team:
Nathalie Lefort : Research Engineer (INSERM)
Christine Varela : Qualified research technician (CECS)
Due to their original properties, pluripotent human stem cells and their progenies are highly valuable not only for regenerative medicine but also as tools to study development and pathologies. Furthermore they are relevant candidate as cellular substrates to screen and test new drugs. However, ensuring their genomic integrity is one important prerequisite for both research and therapeutic applications. Indeed, long-term culture of human pluripotent stem cells can cause them to gain or lose large sections of chromosomes. Regular control of the genomic integrity of human embryonic stem cells has led us to the identification of a recurrent chromosomal amplification at 20q11.21.
The 20q11.21 region is also amplified in numerous of cancers. We now wish to carry on this work by (1) the phenotypic characterization of cells carrying a duplication of the 20q11.21 region, (2) the search for additional yet unrevealed hot spots for genomic instability, (3) the comparison of the genome-wide methylation pattern between wild type and mutant stem cell lines, (4) the comparison of the genome-wide methylation pattern between early and late-passage stem cell lines.
