Grant: Operating Grant

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells hold the promise of being a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues for a number of diseases and conditions including Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Although clinical trials that use cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are already underway, in-depth characterization of all aspects of hESC biology will be paramount to the successful realization of stem cell-derived cures. We recently completed a detailed analysis of the regulatory network of hESCs and identified a family of endogenous retroviruses with a distinctive activity profile that is specific to undifferentiated stem cells. The objectives of the present study are to develop new approaches using next-generation sequencing to accurately map the activity of repetitive regions of the genome and to characterize the function of this family of retrovirus in hESCs. Given that a large fraction of human-specific genomic sequences are derived from endogenous retroviruses, including regions that differ between individuals, their functional characterization in developmental and disease models will be essential.