CPC C12N 5/0696 (2013.01) [C12N 15/85 (2013.01); A01K 67/0273 (2013.01); A01K 67/0275 (2013.01); A01K 2217/05 (2013.01); A01K 2227/105 (2013.01); C07K 14/4702 (2013.01); C12N 15/8509 (2013.01); C12N 15/8775 (2013.01); C12N 2501/602 (2013.01); C12N 2501/603 (2013.01); C12N 2501/605 (2013.01); C12N 2506/1307 (2013.01); C12N 2510/00 (2013.01); C12N 2830/003 (2013.01); C12N 2830/006 (2013.01)] | 12 Claims |
1. A method for identifying an agent capable of reprograming somatic cells to a pluripotent state, comprising:
(i) contacting a candidate agent with an engineered somatic cell comprising an endogenous pluripotency gene operably linked to a DNA encoding a selectable marker in such a manner that the expression of the selectable marker substantially matches the expression of the endogenous pluripotency gene; and
(ii) selecting the cell contacted with the candidate agent for expression of the selectable marker, and assessing for pluripotency characteristics of the selected cell,
wherein the presence of at least a subset of pluripotency characteristics indicates that the candidate agent is capable of reprogramming somatic cells to a pluripotent state;
wherein the engineered somatic cell comprises an exogenous nucleic acid encoding Oct4 operably linked to at least one inducible regulatory sequence, and
wherein the engineered somatic cell is induced to express from the exogenous nucleic acid an amount of Oct4 expression comparable to the amount of Oct4 expression in an embryonic stem cell before contacting with the candidate agent.
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