Directory > Faculty
Jose B. Cibelli,
D.V.M., Ph.D.
Professor
Our Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory focuses in two aspects
of developmental biology:
1- Nuclear Transfer Cloning
A number of different laboratories, including our own, have demonstrated
that a somatic (body) cell, once fused with an egg, is capable
of generating not only stem cells (1) but a whole new organism
as well (2-4). Interestingly, we still do not comprehend how this
is possible. Our laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular
events that lead to the transformation of a somatic nucleus into
an embryonic-pluripotent one. Insights into the mechanism of de-differentiation
will help us generate cloned animals at optimal efficiency for
their use in agriculture and medicine (5).
2- Primate Embryonic Stem Cells
Embryonic stem (ES) cells are capable of maintaining an undifferentiated
or pluripotentstate in vitro. At the same time, by modifying the
culture conditions, they can generate daughter cells capable of
forming all the tissues in the body. We have demonstrated that
somatic cells can be turned into ES cells either by nuclear transfer
(cloning) (1) or by parthenogenesis (6) and that these cells can
later be induced to differentiate into multiple complex tissues
(6). In order for us to understand how the state of pluripotency
is reached and maintained, ES cells are carefully analyzed at
the molecular level. Our challenge is now to learn how to produce
these cells without having to relay on eggs (7).
Publications
Cibelli JB, Stice SL, Golueke PJ, et al. (1998) Transgenic bovine
chimeric offspring produced from somatic cell-derived stem-like
cells. Nat Biotechnol 16: 642-646.
Cibelli JB, Stice SL, Golueke PJ, et al. (1998) Cloned transgenic
calves produced from nonquiescent fetal fibroblasts. Science 280:
1256-1258.
Lanza RP, Cibelli JB, Blackwell C, et al. (2000) Extension of
cell life-span and telomere length in animals cloned from senescent
somatic cells [see comments]. Science 288: 665-669.
Lanza RP, Cibelli JB, Faber D, et al. (2001) Cloned cattle can
be healthy and normal. Science 294: 1893-1894.
Cibelli J, Kiessling A, Cunniff K, Richards C, Lanza R, West
M. (2001) Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer in Humans: Pronuclear
and Early Embryonic Development. e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative
Medicine Volume 2.
Cibelli JB, Campbell KH, Seidel GE, West MD, Lanza RP. (2002)
The health profile of cloned animals. Nat Biotechnol 20: 13-14.
Cibelli JB, Grant KA, Chapman KB, et al. (2002) Parthenogenetic
stem cells in nonhuman primates. Science 295: 819.
Kocabas A, Crosby J, Ross P, Out H, Beyhan Z, Kaplan H, Leong
TW, Rosa GJM, Halgren RG, Lim B, Fernandez E, Cibelli JB. 2006.
The Transcriptome of Human Oocytes. PNAS Vol. 103(38):14027-32.
Other Publications
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