Through the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource (NHNSCR), we have created an Autism induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) Biorepository (ASCB) and now have available dozens of fibroblast lines taken from patients with idiopathic autism as well as patients with FMR1 gene mutations (both full- and pre-mutations), with and without an accompanying autism spectrum disorder. (iPSC) lines from many of these fibroblast cultures are also available for distribution; neural stem cell derivatives will soon follow. More information on these lines will be posted soon.
All of the cultures are established under an NIH grant (R01HD059967), entitled “An Open Repository of Autism iPSCs and their derivatives”. In addition to acting as a bank for autism lines, the NHNSCR’s ASCB also acts as a training facility, bringing in scientists who wish to use these new cell lines in their research and giving them the essential skills to do so (see Figure). Finally, the ASCB is conducting a large bioinfomatic analysis of the whole genome expression data derived from these lines and is actively collaborating with other groups wishing to use these lines.
For more information, please e-mail Dr. Phil Schwartz at pschwartz@choc.org .
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