Scientists at The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) led an international effort to build a map that shows in detail how the human genome is modified during embryonic development. This detailed mapping is a significant move towards the success of targeted differentiation of stem cells into specific organs, which is a crucial consideration for stem cell therapy.
The study was published in the genomics journal Genome Research on February 4, 2010.
Senior author and Senior Group Leader at the GIS, a biomedical research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Dr Chia-Lin Wei said, “In this study, we mapped a major component of the epigenome, DNA methylation, for the entire sequence of human DNA, and went further by comparing three types of cells that represented three stages of human development: human embryonic stem cells, human embryonic stem cells that were differentiated into skin-like cells, and cells derived from skin. With these comprehensive DNA methylome maps, scientists now have a blueprint of key epigenetic signatures associated with differentiation.”
