しずいちゃん

Discovery of iPS cells and Shizui cell bank.

In 2006, there was a discovery of century in Japan. Derivation of iPS cells by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka. Before that mammals were thought to be born only by fetilization of egg by sperm or nuclear transfer into fertilized eggs. However, Prof. Yamanaka and Dr. Takahashi found that introduction of several genes (Yamanakas factors) can change the skin cells into embryonic cells inside the developing eggs.

Prof. Abe's group took a movie to see how mouse skin cells become iPS cells. Only part of the cells changed shape to become iPS cells, and many other cells failed and died.

Fortunatelly, our Shizui cells became iPS cells in Prof. Yamanaka's laboratory. We dreamed that if we can make many iPS cells from Shizui cells, a number of people suffering difficult health problems will be cured.