Researchers create a free public library of versatile stem cells from ALS patients

Researchers create a free public library of versatile stem cells from ALS patients
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have transformed skin cells from patients with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), into brain cells affected by the progressive, fatal disease and deposited those human-made cells into the first public ALS cell library, enabling scientists to better study the disease.

Using a genetic engineering technique that causes adult skin cells to transform into “pluripotent” cells, otherwise known as induced pluripotent stem cells, which can take the form of many different cells found in other parts of the body, “we make brain cells out of the patient’s own skin,” says Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D., who directs the Brain Science Institute and the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research. 

While the technique for creating these human-made cells has been used by other researchers, Rothstein and his colleagues are the first to use these induced pluripotent stem cells to create the largest library of brain cell lines donated voluntarily by more than 20 ALS patients whose disease was caused by various genetic mutations.

“These human cellular tools will serve as a platform to understand ALS and someday discover new drugs to treat our patients,” says Rothstein, senior author of a study about the work, which was recently published online in PLOS ONE. 

Source and further reading:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/a_new_tool_for_understanding_als__patients_brain_cells%20

Image credit: Wellcome Images (Creative Commons)

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