Scientists Attempt to Alter Destiny of Cell

Scientists at the University of California- Santa Barbara, have found a new way to make cells behave different and change the course of their destiny. With this discovery they will be producing tissues and organs in the laboratory that could be used to replace  injured, diseased or aged organs.

The discovery made in the laboratory of Joel H. Rothman, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at UC Santa Barbara , revealed that by breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo,  allows them to change the destiny o f the cell.

Others involved in the research are Ph.D students Nareg Djabrayan, Erica Sommermann and postdoctoral fellow Nathaniel Dudley.

"At some point along the way toward becoming part of a complete individual, cells become destined to choose a particular identity and long-term profession," Rothman noted. "Once a cell chooses who it will be, it locks onto that identity for the remainder of its life."

According to the report, particular organ cell continue to function in a similar capacity until they die. Once a heart cell always a heart cell. It never switches roles and functions.

"If Oz's wizard possessed the powers he claimed, and had a spare brain lying around, he could switch it to a heart as a gift for the Tin Man. And he could reverse the trick for the Scarecrow," Rothman said.

In a similar manner, the researchers have found a way to unlock cells' destinies and lead them to take on a new profession.

They noticed that a widely used cell signaling system which is mostly known as 'Notch' signaling, triggers cells to play a particular occupation that could be as a skin or brain cell. On blocking the signal with some genetic manipulation, the researchers found that they could make a cell change directions, such that they instead became cells of the intestine.

"We found that we could break the signal in such a way that cells would follow their usual destinies, but were somehow less committed to doing so: We

could convince them to change professions long after they would normally refuse to do so," Rothman said.

This discovery was possible by connecting the genetics of a tiny nematode worm known as C. elegans,  a model animal that has become famed in fundamental studies in biomedicine and been the subject of six Nobel prizes.

The researchers revealed that shutting off the Notch signal in early embryos made it possible for them to change the destiny of cells much later, at a stage when they normally could not.

"The later cells seemed to remember what had happened to their great-grandparent cells," Rothman said. "Imagine if the experience of your great-grandparents predestined you to become a lawyer, dentist, or coal miner, and you could not choose to change your professional destiny. That is what is happening to cells whose cellular ancestors received the Notch signal."

By unlocking a cell's normal destiny, it may be possible to change it into an altogether different type of cell that could be used to grow a new organ for a patient.

The studies were reported in the interdisciplinary journal, Genes and Development.