Stem Cell Biomarkers

Dr. Douglas A. Lauffenburger, Massassachusetts Institute of Technology, EEC-9492965

Stem cells are the embryonic cells that develop into all other kinds of tissues in higher organisms. As such, they offer tremendous potential for genetic engineering of tissues for medical purposes. One of the major needs in stem cell research is for a reliable tool that can be used to positively identify and distinguish stem cells from other cells. The existing methods require too much guesswork. Researchers at MIT's Biotechnology Process Engineering Center, an Engineering Research Center, have discovered a new and effective method for doing this.

2 mouse embryos, one of which is expressing the reporter transgene

Using transgenic mice that lack specific proteins, known as Ikaros and Stem Cell Leukemia (SCL), they showed that the presence of these proteins is essential for hematopoietic stem cell transcription (part of the process of genetic replication). This breakthrough research on mouse stem cells provides the basis for a novel biotechnological tool, based on these two biomarkers, that will allow scientists and engineers to identify hematopoietic stem cells for research purposes.