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Thursday, August 14, 2014

Genetic Recipe Turns Stem Cells into Blood Cells

Researchers have uncovered 2 genetic programs that direct human stem cells to become red and white blood cells. By overexpressing just 2 transcription factors (ETV2 and GATA2 or GATA2 and TAL1), the researchers could reproduce the sequence of events that occur in the embryo when blood cells are formed. For every million stem cells, the researchers were able to produce 30 million blood cells. A critical aspect of the work is the use of modified messenger RNA to direct stem cells toward particular developmental fates. The advance is described in a Nature Communications study.

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