During body organ formation pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) give rise to tissue-specific multipotent SCs that generate all differentiated cells types of the mammalian body. In the CNS the transition from neural stem cells (NSCs) to neurons and glia is controlled by the combinatorial activity of transcription factors (TFs), epigenetic mechanisms and extracellular factors. Although it was believed that once a somatic cell becomes postmitotic this state could not be reverted, it was recently shown that transduction of four TFs (OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4 and C-MYC) is sufficient for reprogramming somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells or iPSCs). The use of iPSCs is having a profound impact on studies aimed at addressing the mechanisms of cell and organ development and on cell therapy approaches to investigate and, where possible, to treat diseases. I will present and discuss results illustrating cell fate changes in the developing brain as well as as the production of iPSCs from fibroblasts isolated from Parkinson´s disease (PD) patients. We are investigating the effect of mutations in the glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) gene on neuronal survival and maturation as mutations in this gene are risk factors for PD. The phenotype of dopaminergic neurons generated from the GBA1-derived iPSCs and controls is being studied using cellular, molecular and functional assays.

More information:

• https://cajal.csic.es/laboratorios/celulas-madre/