"These data are another powerful demonstration of the specificity and broad applicability of Sangamo's ZFP technology across medically and commercially relevant cell types," stated Philip Gregory, D. Phil., Sangamo's chief scientific officer and vice president of research. "The ability to efficiently modify stem cells enables the generation of valuable new tools for drug screening and the study of human disease as well as therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine."

In the article published today, Dr. Jaenisch and his team demonstrated the broad applicability of gene editing applications enabled by ZFNs in hESCs and hiPSCs. In one example, they generated hESCs that carried a reporter gene. This gave researchers a visual method to clearly identify undifferentiated cells from those that had differentiated to their final cell type. In another example they inserted a new gene into a specific site in the genome of hESCs and demonstrated that ZFNs can be used to generate reporter cells in non-expressed genes in the genomes of hESCs and iPSCs, tools that will be useful in the study of cell fate and differentiation protocols.

Source: sangamo