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Induced pluripotency is beginning to show its mettle as a powerful tool for biological discovery and is Nature Methods' pick for Method of the Year 2009. Cover design by Erin Dewalt. Special feature starts on p17.
A miniature head-mounted two-photon microscope small enough for a rat to carry allows researchers to visualize neuronal signaling while the animal freely interacts with its environment.
Screening reveals a chemical activator that triggers apoptosis by locking inactive but dynamic proenzymes into a more active state, suggesting a promising strategy for targeting proteases.
Now that the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells is becoming routine, researchers can get on to the more exciting prospect of using the cells to make discoveries in disease and basic biology. Monya Baker reports.
The discovery that it is possible to render somatic cells pluripotent by the exogenous expression of a set of transcription factors provides an experimental model for studying the molecular nature of cellular identity.
iPS cell technology makes patient- and disease-specific human cells widely available. While technical challenges still remain, the use of these tools will greatly expand our understanding of human disease.
The field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) will be subject to a wide range of laws and research ethics policies, many of which exist as a result of the controversies associated with research on human embryonic stem cells. Understanding this potentially complex regulatory environment will help iPSC research move forward and will inform future policy.
New methods to coax signals from unlabeled biological molecules may finally fulfill the promise of practical label-free microscopy with molecular specificity.
Mouse lines with inducible reprogramming factors expressed from a single genomic locus will allow reprogramming studies in multiple cell types and defined genetic backgrounds.
Cardiomyocytes can be sorted to high purity upon staining them with a dye that labels mitochondria. This permits the preparation of pure populations of cardiomyocytes differentiated from stem cells.
Selected reaction monitoring (SRM) is a powerful mass spectrometry technology to reliably detect selected protein targets, even those at very low abundance, but requires tedious assay development for each protein of interest. High-throughput SRM assay development is now possible by using crude synthetic peptide libraries without purification to represent each protein target.
Single-molecule sequencing of poly(A)-tailed chromatin immunoprecipitated DNA proves equal in sensitivity and accuracy to amplification-based sequencing technologies and allows analysis of samples sizes as small as 50 pg.
An efficient system for the reversion and modification of mouse gene trap alleles is presented. It is applicable to available collections of gene trap embryonic stem cell lines.
A mouse strain in which cellular reprogramming factors are expressed from a defined genomic locus is presented. It will enable studies of reprogramming in multiple cell types as well as facilitate comparisons between induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Also in this issue, a paper by Carey et al. presents related tools.
Mouse strains in which three or four cellular reprogramming factors are expressed from a defined genomic locus are presented. They will enable studies of reprogramming in multiple cell types as well as facilitate comparisons between induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Also in this issue, a paper from Stadtfeld et al. presents related tools.
Staining with a mitochondrial dye permits high-purity isolation of cardiomyocytes from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells of several species, without genetic modification.
A polarity-sensitive annexin-based biosensor called pSIVA becomes strongly fluorescent only after reversibly binding to the plasma membrane. pSIVA allows live-cell imaging of the apoptotic process in degenerating neurons in vitro and in vivo.
By combining a protein complementation assay with a transcriptional reporter assay based on short expressed oligonucleotide tags (EXTs), the authors monitor tyrosine kinase receptor dimerization in conjunction with effector recruitment and downstream signaling.
Rapid progress with induced pluripotent stem cells is bringing scientists closer to understanding their strengths and weaknesses as embryonic stem cell stand-ins.
Nature Methods' Method of the Year 2009 goes to induced pluripotency for its potential for biological discovery. This series of articles—and the related video—showcase how induced pluripotency is coming into its own in 2009 as a tool for discovery in both basic and disease biology and explore the incredible impact this area promises to have in biological research.