Nuclear Reprogramming

This group studies molecular mechanisms of nuclear reprogramming in egg cytoplasm (the thick, liquid substance in a cell outside the nucleus) in the context of nuclear cloning. Nuclear cloning is a procedure to create new animals by injecting nuclei into unfertilized eggs. At the heart of this nuclear reprogramming lies chromatin remodeling (genetic material present in the nucleus of a cell), since chromatin structure and function define cell differentiation (formation of multiple cells) by regulating the copying of genetic information. Recent successes in mammalian cloning with differentiated adult nuclei strongly indicate that egg cytoplasm (the thick, liquid substance in a cell outside the nucleus) contains unidentified reprogramming activities that can erase the previous memory of cell differentiation (formation of multiple cells). These studies should provide significant insight into the molecular mechanisms of differentiation in egg cytoplasm.