Research Description
Human and non-human primate embryonic stem cells
Our group reported the first derivation of embryonic stem (ES) cells from a non-human primate in 1995, work that led us to the first derivation of human ES cells in 1998. Human ES cells are capable of unlimited undifferentiated proliferation, and yet maintain the ability to form all the cells of the body. Much of our early work focused on developing the basic tools (for example, transfection techniques, homologous recombination, and culture conditions) needed to establish human ES cells as a useful experimental model. My group has also been involved in demonstrating the developmental potential of human ES cells in lineage-specific differentiation (such as blood, trophoblast, neural tissue, and heart). Ultimately, the differentiated derivatives of human ES cells could have important applications in transplantation medicine, and we continue some studies of lineage-specific differentiation in collaboration with UW physician scientists.
The current focus of my lab is on understanding the ES cell itself. We wish to understand why this cell can form any cell in the body (pluripotency); how an ES cell chooses between self-renewal and the initial decision to differentiate; what determines which developmental transitions are allowed or not-allowed; and how a differentiated cell with limited developmental potential can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent cell.
Recent Publications
Ludwig, T., M. Levenstein, J. Jones, W. Berggren, E. Mitchen, J. Frane, L. Crandall, C. Daigh, K. Conard, M. Piekarczyk, R. Llanas and J. Thomson. "Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Defined Conditions." Nature Biotech 24 (2006) 185-187.
PubMed
Yu J, Vodyanik MA, He P, Slukvin II, Thomson JA. "Human Embryonic Stem Cells Reprogram Myeloid Precursors Following Cell-Cell Fusion." Stem Cells 24 (2006) 168-176.
PubMed
Kameda T, Thomson JA. "Human ERas gene Has an Upstream Premature Polyadenylation Signal That Results in a Truncated, Noncoding Transcript." Stem Cells 23 (2005) 1535-1540.
PubMed
Xu RH, Peck RM, Li DS, Feng X, Ludwig T, Thomson JA. "Basic FGF and suppression of BMP signaling sustain undifferentiated proliferation of human ES cells." Nature Methods 2005 Mar;2(3):185-90.
PubMed
Zwaka TP, Thomson JA. "A germ cell origin of embryonic stem cells?" Development 2005 Jan;132(2):227-33.
PubMed
Sperger, J.M, X. Chen, J.S. Draper, J.E. Antosiewicz, C. Chon, S. Jones, J.D. Brooks, P.W. Andrews, P.O. Brown, and J.A. Thomson. "Gene expression patterns in human embryonic stem cells and human pluripotent germ cell tumors." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100 (2003): 13350-13355.
Zwaka, T.P and J.A. Thomson. "Homologous recombination in human embryonic stem cells." Nature Biotech. 21 (2003): 319-21.
Thomson, J.A., J. Itskovitz-Eldor, S.S. Shapiro, M.A. Waknitz, J.J. Swiergiel, V.S. Marshall, and J.M. Jones. "Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts." Science 282 (1998): 1145-1147.
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