zIPS Cells for Biomedicine: Zebrafish Pluripotent Stem Cells for Disease Modeling, 2015

Despite the pre-eminence of mouse and human models of human disease through the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, several aspects of murine and human biology limit their use in high-throughput in vivo genetic screening. For these reasons, Zebrafish has become an attractive organism for developmentally and genetically tractable disease modeling. This project aimed to generate zebrafish embryo-derived cells suitable for biomedical applications and drug discovery. Specific aims were: 1 - To generate pluripotent zebrafish ziPS cells by genetic and chemical reprogramming 2 - To functionally characterize ziPS cells in vivo 3 - To establish a proof-of-concept of the biomedical use of ziPS cells Strategy relies on expression of pluripotency factors into embryo-derived cells (zEDCs), and treatment with modifiers of the epigenome and of signaling pathways.