Automated, high-throughput derivation, characterization and differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells.

Nat Methods
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an essential tool for modeling how causal genetic variants impact cellular function in disease, as well as an emerging source of tissue for regenerative medicine. The preparation of somatic cells, their reprogramming and the subsequent verification of iPSC pluripotency are laborious, manual processes limiting the scale and reproducibility of this technology. Here we describe a modular, robotic platform for iPSC reprogramming enabling automated, high-throughput conversion of skin biopsies into iPSCs and differentiated cells with minimal manual intervention. We demonstrate that automated reprogramming and the pooled selection of polyclonal pluripotent cells results in high-quality, stable iPSCs. These lines display less line-to-line variation than either manually produced lines or lines produced through automation followed by single-colony subcloning. The robotic platform we describe will enable the application of iPSCs to population-scale biomedical problems including the study of complex genetic diseases and the development of personalized medicines.

Year of Publication
2015
Journal
Nat Methods
Volume
12
Issue
9
Pages
885-92
Date Published
2015 Sep
ISSN
1548-7105
URL
DOI
10.1038/nmeth.3507
PubMed ID
26237226
Links
Grant list
P01GM099117 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States