Stem Cell Core

The Human Stem Cell Core is the newest addition to the UVA School of Medicine Core Facility family, established to provide research-grade induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their derivatives to support the development of clinical-quality cells for human cell therapy. The core offers three main categories of services: production and cell banking of organ- and disease-specific iPSCs; product development, including individualized projects that generate specific cell types such as neurons, cardiomyocytes, and insulin-producing β cells; and education and training workshops for students and faculty. Human pluripotent stem cells, which include embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced stem cells (hiPSCs), have the unique ability to self-renew indefinitely and differentiate into all cell types from the three germ layers. This makes them ideal for regenerative medicine applications, as well as for creating in vitro disease models to study pathogenesis, treatments, drug screening, and toxicology. While hESCs are derived from early embryos, hiPSCs are created by reprogramming non-pluripotent somatic cells into a pluripotent state using specific transcription factor genes such as Oct-4, Sox2, c-MYC, and KLF4. As a demonstration, the core has produced iPSCs from established human foreskin fibroblasts using a non-integrating Sendai virus reprogramming kit.