S’pore scientists turn stem cells into prized endoderm

SINGAPORE — Scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have developed a method to turn stem cells into a type of cell that gives rise to organs, including the liver and pancreas.

Called endoderm, the cell type is highly sought after for therapeutic and biotechnological purposes, but has been difficult to obtain from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs).

The challenge lies in the ability of the stem cells to generate more than 200 distinct cell types in the human body by responding to multiple external protein instructions to differentiate into other cell types. The stem cells tend to also form other types of cells even while being coaxed to generate a specific cell type.

To address the problem, the scientists — who published their discovery in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell this month — devised a new approach.

They screened for proteins and chemicals that promote the formation of a single desired cell type and concurrently block the induction of unwanted cell types. In the process, the scientists uncovered the combination of triggers that could drive the stem cells towards generating pure populations of endoderm.

“This unprecedented access to a highly pure population of endodermal cells attracts pharmaceutical companies, who are interested in further making human liver cells to test drug toxicities,” said Dr Bing Lim, senior group leader and Associate Director of Cancer Stem Cell Biology at GIS, who led the team that carried out the research.

In a statement, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the parent organisation of GIS, said the study was carried out in collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, as well as other organisations. Channel NewsAsia