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Select Research Group Head Prof. Sir Tom Blundell Prof. Kevin Brindle Dr Bill Broadhurst Dr Guy Brown Dr Mark Carrington Prof. Paul Dupree Prof. Gerard Evan - Head of Dept Prof. Richard Farndale Dr Giorgio Favrin Dr Jenny Gallop Dr Nick Gay Dr Andrew Grace Dr Jules Griffin Dr Brian Hendrich Dr Andrew Hesketh Dr Robin Hesketh Dr Matt Higgins Dr Florian Hollfelder Dr Hee-Jeon Hong Prof. Chris Howe Dr Marko Hyvonen Prof. Steve Jackson Dr Tony Jackson Prof. Richard Jackson Prof. Ernest Laue Prof. Peter Leadlay Dr Kathryn Lilley Dr Karen Lipkow Dr Rick Livesey Prof. Ben Luisi Dr Sarah Lummis Dr Juan Mata Dr John McCafferty Prof. Jim Metcalfe Dr Masanori Mishima Dr Eric Miska Dr Tom Monie Dr Helen Mott Dr Natasha Murzina Dr Daniel Nietlispach Dr Darerca Owen Prof. Steve Oliver Dr Luca Pellegrini Dr Markus Ralser Dr Nick Robinson Prof. George Salmond Dr Deirdre Scadden Dr José Silva Prof. Austin Smith Prof. Chris Smith Dr Nancy Standart Prof. Dame Jean Thomas Dr Aviva Tolkovsky Dr Martin Welch Dr Joyce Wong Dr Nianshu Zhang

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Select by Subject or Manager DNA Sequencing Facility . . . . . Mr John Lester _______________________________ Quantitative Proteomics . . . . . Dr Kathryn Lilley _______________________________ Proteomics Core Services . . . . . Dr Mike Deery _______________________________ Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry . . . . . Dr Len Packman _______________________________ Metabolomics . . . . . Dr Jules Griffin _______________________________ Baculovirus Facility . . . . . Dr Darerca Owen _______________________________ Biophysics Facility . . . . . Dr Katherine Stott _______________________________ Crystallographic X-ray Facility . . . . . Dr Dima Chirgadze _______________________________ NMR spectroscopy . . . . . Dr Daniel Nietlispach _______________________________ Fermentation Facility . . . . . Dr Nianshu Zhang _______________________________ Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Services . . . . . Dr Jenny Barna _______________________________ Computer & IT Support . . . . . Dr Erik Timmers _______________________________

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Select past member of Department Dr Stephen Bell Prof. Jonathan Blackburn Dr David Brown Dr Pak-Lee Chau Dr Hal Dixon (deceased) Dr Jessica Downs Prof. David Ellar Dr Paul Kemp Dr Simon Lovell Dr Kenji Mizuguchi Dr Massimo Paoli Prof. Richard Perham Dr Peter Reynolds Dr Philip Rubery Dr Gerry Smith Dr Margaret Sunde Prof. Jamie Vandenberg Dr Kira Weissman

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Biology of Induced Pluripotency

Research Grouping: Developmental and regenerative biology and medicine

The aim of our lab is to understand the underlying biology of the conversion of a somatic epigenome back into a pluripotent epigenome, a process known as induced pluripotency. We are particularly interested in determining the molecular mechanisms by which the key players in this process work. Fully understanding induced pluripotency and better characterising iPS and ES cells is indispensible before these can be used in biomedical applications.

Figure 1. Requirement for Nanog in induced pluripotency. The process of induction of pluripotency, for which Nanog is crucial, has three phases. The initiation phase comprises the transduction of somatic cells with reprogramming transgenes Oct4, Klf4 and cMyc. This results in the appearance of a proliferative cell type (pre-iPS) where downregulation of genes from the original cell and expression of some markers of pluripotency occurs. This phase does not require the expression of Nanog. Pre-iPS cells are dependent on the continuous expression of transgenes, are not pluripotent and their exposure to 2i/LIF culture conditions leads to the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This event marks the establishment phase and Nanog is required for its completion. In the maintenance phase, the last in the process of induction of pluripotency, Nanog is no longer required and can be deleted without compromising self-renewal or the ability of Nanog null iPS cells to contribute to the adult animal.

Lab members Yael Costa,  Aliaksandra Radzisheuskaya,  Rodrigo Santos,  Thorold Theunissen,  Anouk van Oosten and Moyra Lawrence

References Theunissen TW, Costa Y, Radzhisheuskaya A, van Oosten AL, Lavial F, Pain B, Castro LFC, Silva JCR. Reprogramming capacity of Nanog is functionally conserved in vertebrates and resides in a unique homeodomain. Development. (2011) Nov;138(22):4853-65. Theunissen TW, van Oosten AL, Castelo-Branco, G Hall J, Smith A, Silva JCR. Nanog overcomes reprogramming barriers and induces pluripotency in minimal conditions. Current Biology. (2011) Jan 11;21(1):65-71. Epub 2010 Dec 30. Silva J#, Nichols J, Theunissen TW, Guo G, van Oosten AL, Barrandon O, Wray J,Chambers I, Yamanaka S, Smith A#. Nanog is the Gateway to the Pluripotent Ground State. Cell. (2009) Aug 21;138(4):722-37 Silva J#, Barrandon O, Nichols J, Theunissen T, Kawaguchi J, Smith A#. Promotion of Reprogramming to Ground State Pluripotency by Signal Inhibition. PLoS Biology. (2008) 6(10): e253 doi:10.1371/journal. pbio.0060253.  (#) joint corresponding authors