The Thomson Laboratory
Faculty > James A. Thomson
James A. Thomson
Director of Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research
thomson@primate.wisc.edu
Relevant Research Description
Understanding how a cell maintains or changes identity and understanding what limits the repertoire of identities that a particular cell can become are the basic themes of my laboratory.
We use human embryonic (ES) stem cells as a model system because their unlimited proliferative capacity and developmental potential make them uniquely suited for exploring these themes in human material.
In the early 1990s, my laboratory derived ES cells from an Old World monkey (the rhesus macaque) and a New World monkey (the common marmoset), work that led to the derivation of human ES cells. Much of the initial work in my laboratory after that derivation focused on establishing human ES cells as an accepted, practical model system. We developed, for example, improved culture conditions, methods for genetic manipulation, and approaches for the in vitro differentiation to key lineages of clinical importance.
We are now focused on using these tools to understand the basic biology of pluripotency. For example, we use several conditions that induce uniform differentiation to specific lineages to study in detail how ES cells decide to exit the pluripotent state and become restricted in their potential, and we use a hematopoietic model system to study how that process of restriction can be reversed.
Selected References
Yu J, Vodyanik M, Smuga-Otto K, Frane J, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Frane J, Tian S, Nie J, Jonsdottir GA, Ruotti V, Stewart R, Slukvin II, Thomson JA. "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Somatic Cells." Science. 318 (2007):1917-1920.
Dejosez M, Krumenacker JS, Zitur LJ, Passeri M, Chu LF, Songyang Z, Thomson JA, Zwaka TP. "Ronin is Essential for Embryogenesis and the Pluripotency of Mouse ES Cells." Cell. 2008 Jun 27;133(7):1162-74. PMCID: PMC249577
Phanstiel D, Brumbaugh J, Berggren WT, Conard K, Feng X, Levenstein ME, McAlister GC, Thomson JA, Coon JJ. "Mass spectrometry identifies and quantifies 74 unique histone H4 isoforms in differentiating human embryonic stem cells." Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008 March 18;105(11):4093-8. PMCID: PMC2393763
Xu RH, Sampsell-Barron TL, Gu F, Root S, Peck RM, Pan G, Yu J, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Tian S, Stewart R, Thomson JA. "Nanog is a Direct Target of TGFß/Activin Mediated SMAD Signaling in Human ES Cells." Cell Stem Cell. 2008 Aug 7;3(2):196-206. NIHMSID#65570
Ebert AD, Yu J, Rose FF, Mattis VB, Lorson CL, Thomson JA, Svendsen CN. "Generation and differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cell s from a spinal muscular atrophy patient." (in press, Nature).