Title: Systems Biology and Stem Cell Biology

2 Summary Stem cells are specialized progenitor cells that have the ability to develop into different somatic cell types in the body. Among the different stem cells, embryonic stem (ES) cells are considered the most pluripotent as they have the potential to form every cell type, including other somatic stem cells. ES cells also possess the capability for extensive self-renewing division in culture. Understanding the unique biological properties of these cells has captured intense interests in recent years, propelled by high expectations of their great potential in regenerative medicine and by advances in technologies for studying these cells using systems approaches. Genetic and epigenetic characterization of ES cells has been extensively carried out. The generation of large datasets, the availability of robust tools to perturb biological function and the application of computational methods have enabled new discoveries at an unprecedented pace. The concerted effort in studying ES cells makes them a good cellular model for systems biology. Stem cells: Stem cells are unspecialized and undifferentiated cells that retain the ability to differentiate into specialized cell-types. Pluripotency: Pluripotency is defined as the developmental potential of stem cells to differentiate into various specific cell types of the embryo and adult. The inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst is pluripotent, and serves as precursor of mouse embryonic stem cells that can be propagated in culture infinitely given appropriate conditions. During normal embryogenesis, pluripotency is lost upon cell differentiation into the different lineages. Self-renewal: Self-renewal is the process of continuous cell divisions without differentiation to generate daughter cells identical to the mother cell. ChIP: Chromatin immunoprecipitation is a technique used to study protein / DNA interactions in live cells. Formaldehyde crosslinks protein to DNA and this preserves the interaction which can be enriched by immunoprecipitation with a specific antibody.