The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced today a collaboration with the Harvard Personal Genome Project (PGP). Initially, we will be seeking out 50 Harvard PGP participants to donate skin samples for generation of induced pluripotent stem cell lines.
Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are derived from adult skin cells and can give rise to any cell type within the human body. This makes them a promising research focus for improving human health. The NYSCF's robotic methods create standardized cells, which is important because it helps scientists understand when cell features are due to genetic or epigenetic differences (and not to the different techniques used to create the cell lines!). PGP participants are a great resource for scientists because their genome and other biological data can be shared publicly. By working together, the NYSCF and PGP will create standard iPS cell lines whose data can be published publicly – a great resource for the scientific community.
Harvard PGP participants interested in working with the NYSCF can view more details about this study on our third party studies page.