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14AIST TODAY 2013-1life-liaison-ml@aist.go.jpFor inquiries about this article : Research Planning Office of Life Science and Blotechnologyhttp://unit.aist.go.jp/scrc/cie/index_en.htmlFor inquiries about this article : Research Center for Stem Cell EngineeringFig. 2: Experiment of continuous culture using automatic iPS culture equipmenta: Appearance of the equipmentb: AP staining of cells in colony under continuous culture to clarify their undifferentiation rateFig. 1: iPS cells established with Sendai viruses (arrows: iPS cells proliferating in colonies) 1 mm1 mmA multitude of pressing issuesThe term “stem cell” is now a household word that we often hear in news reports. People have come to take it for granted that these cells may serve as a savior in the field of regenerative medicine. In particular, news reports cite iPS cells, which are a type of stem cells born in Japan (Fig. 1), as being as pluripotent as embryonic stem cells (ES cells), and iPS cells are a focus of rising expectations. This understanding is quite right if we look at it from a certain angle. However, we must also face the fact that there are a multitude of pressing issues yet to be overcome.A variety of iPS and ES cell strains are cultured at laboratories and they must be taken care of (that is, change their media) every day. Since cells in a culture dish grow and completely fill it in about five days, they need to be diluted into many other culture dishes for subculture on a timely basis. If we apply them to regenerative medicine, we will have to make hundreds of these culture dishes ready. This fact alone clearly demonstrates how much Approach to Technical Development of Stem Cell Evaluation InfrastructureReferences[1] S. Saito et al.: BMC Sys. Biol., 5 (Suppl. 1), S17 (2011).[2] I. Ben-Porath et al.: Nat. Genet., 40, 499-507 (2008).[3] Y. Wong et al.: In preparation.to be in the differentiation stage (B in the figure) is quantitatively presented based on the gene set contained in this IGSP (top of A in the figure) and the gene set specific to the parent cells (bottom of A). As shown in the figure, these “halfway” iPS cells are located between the parent cells and iPS cells. Next, we investigated the stemness of cancer cells,[2] which is a topic that has been widely discussed in recent years. By using about 13,000 sets of cancer cell data, our investigation revealed that about 20 % of the cancer cells showed stemness (C), and that a positive correlation with the grade of cancer malignancy existed.[3] Quantification based on the IGSP obtained from strict selection is expected to realize quality evaluation of iPS cells and contribute to the further advancement of cancer research.Biological Network TeamComputational Biology Research CenterKatsuhisa HORIMOTO

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