Snapshots of Pluripotency

Abstract

Pluripotency is a unique developmental state that lays the foundation upon which the entire embryo is built. Pluripotent cells possess the unique capacity to generate, in an exquisitely defined sequence, all the distinct cell types comprising the fetal and adult organism. The discovery of pluripotent stem cells and now the ability to generate them from differentiated cells has had a profound impact on a vast array of scientific disciplines. In addition to their clinical potential as a source of therapeutic cell types, pluripotent stem cells provide scalable access to otherwise experimentally inaccessible development- and disease-associated biology. Here I provide my perspective on the continuum of pluripotency in the early mammalian embryo. I also discuss how novel genomic technologies are now enabling the capture of molecular "snapshots" of the several distinct pluripotent states that stem cells undergo during this pivotal developmental period.

Paul Tesar received his undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2003 and went on to earn his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford as a recipient of a prestigious scholarship from the NIH. During his graduate and postdoctoral studies, under the tutelage of Professor Sir Richard Gardner and Dr. Ron McKay, Paul investigated how to harness stem cells as a tool to understand early mammalian development. Paul's early studies culminated in a landmark paper in Nature in which he described the isolation of a new type of pluripotent stem cell termed epiblast stem cells. Paul returned home to join the CWRU School of Medicine faculty in 2010 and his laboratory has continued to develop cutting-edge stem cell technologies for better understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders including multiple sclerosis, pediatric leukodystrophies, and brain cancer. Paul is currently an Associate Professor and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at CWRU and a Robertson Investigator of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. In 2015, Paul was honored with the International Society for Stem Cell Research Outstanding Young Investigator Award at the annual meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.