Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in Brain Diseases

Brain diseases can have a large impact on patients and society, and treatment is often not available. A new approach in which somatic cells are reprogrammed into induced pluripotent cells (iPS cells) is a significant breakthrough for regenerative medicine. This promises patient-specific tissue for replacement therapies, as well as disease-specific cells for developmental modeling and drug treatment screening. However, this method faces issues of low reprogramming efficiency, and poorly defined criteria for determining the conversion of one cell type to another. Cells contain epigenetic 'memories' of what they were that can affect reprogramming. This book discusses the various methods to reprogram cells, the control and determination of cell identity, the epigenetic models that have emerged and the application of iPS cell therapy for brain diseases, in particular Parkinson's disease and Vanishing White Matter (VWM).?

Dr. Vivi M. Heine is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Heine earned her doctoral degree in Neurobiology from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She then received post-doctoral training at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University, Boston and at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California at San Francisco. She obtained a tenure track position in 2010.