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Researcher's Profile

Last Name

Thomson

First Name

James

Middle Initial

Areas of Research Expertise

* Isolation and culture of non-human primate and human embryonic stem cells

* Currently involved in demonstrating the developmental potential of human ES cells in lineage-specific differentiation

* Seeks to understand how ES cells can form any cell in the body (pluripotency), and how an ES cell chooses between self renewal and the initial decision to differentiate

* Also seeks to understand how a differentiated cell with limited developmental potential can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent cell

Web site

Thomson Lab Website

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Current/Active Funding

NIH, 2005-2009, National Stem Cell Bank

Issued Patent(s)

7,449,334 - Medium containing pipecholic acid and gamma amino butyric acid and culture of embryonic stem cells, granted Nov 2008.
7,442,548 - Culturing human embryonic stem cells in medium containing pipecholic acid and gamma amino butyric acid, granted Oct 2008.
7,220,584 - Method of making embryoid bodies from primate embryonic stem cells, granted May 2007.
7,148,062 - Method for generating primate trophoblasts, granted Dec 2006.
7,029,913 - Primate embryonic stem cells, granted Apr 2006.
7,005,252 - Serum free cultivation of primate embryonic stem cells, granted Feb 2006.
6,887,706 - Method of in vitro differentiation of transplantable neural precursor cells from primate embryonic stem cells, granted May 2005.
More, see USPTO website

USPTO Published Applications

20080003674 - Erythroid cells producing adult type Beta-hemoglobin generated from human embryonic stem cells, January 3, 2008.
20070238170 - Culturing human embryonic stem cells, October 11, 2007.
20070207543 - Defined surfaces of self-assembled monolayers and stem cells, September 6, 2007.

Recent Publication(s)

"Functional cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells"

Zhang J, Wilson GF, Soerens AG, et al., Circ Res 104 (4): e30-41 Feb 2009. The aim of this study was to characterize the cardiac differentiation potential of human iPS cells generated using OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and LIN28 transgenes compared to human embryonic stem (ES) cells. We conclude that human iPS cells can differentiate into functional cardiomyocytes, and thus iPS cells are a viable option as an autologous cell source for cardiac repair and a powerful tool for cardiovascular research. Pubmed/NLM.

"NANOG is a direct target of TGF beta/Activin-mediated SMAD signaling in human ESCs"

Xu RH, Sampsell-Barron TL, Gu F, et al., Cell Stem Cell 3 (2): 196-206 Aug 2008. Using a defined medium, we show here that both TGF beta and FGF signals synergize to inhibit BMP signaling; sustain expression of pluripotency-associated genes such as NANOG, OCT4, and SOX2; and promote long-term undifferentiated proliferation of human ESCs.

"Pluripotent stem cell lines"

Yu JY, Thomson JA, Genes & Development 22 (15): 1987-1997 Aug 2008. Here we review the family of pluripotent cell lines derived from early embryos and from germ cells, and compare them with the more recently described induced pluripotent stem cells.

"Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells"

Yu J, Vodyanik MA, Smuga-Otto K, et al., Science 318 (5858): 1917-1920 Dec 2007. We show that four factors (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and LIN28) are sufficient to reprogram human somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells that exhibit the essential characteristics of embryonic stem (ES) cells. These induced pluripotent human stem cells have normal karyotypes, express telomerase activity, express cell surface markers and genes that characterize human ES cells, and maintain the developmental potential to differentiate into advanced derivatives of all three primary germ layers.