Our mission is to provide expertise and quality-control reagents for culture and differentiation of human ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to CHOP, the University of Pennsylvania, and outside academic communities.

The facility maintains six NIH-approved hESC lines and several iPSC lines. Stringent protocols are established to:

Propagate human ESC and iPSC lines, monitor for maintenance of the pluripotent state and distribute these lines to investigators
Differentiate hESCs/iPSCs into mesoderm and their derivative tissues under controlled, serum-free conditions with defined cytokines
Generate iPSCs from human subjects using a single lentiviral vector in which the reprogramming genes can be removed by Cre-mediated recombination
In addition to these standard protocols, we will work with investigators to design new protocols tailored for their individualized research. Technologies for creating and manipulating ESCs/iPSCs are evolving rapidly and we are dedicated to incorporating the latest technologies and protocols into our facility infrastructure.