1) Introduction and Background

- Adult and embryonic stem cells; differentiation potential; stem cell niche; examples of adult stem cells; epigenetics.

- Non-coding RNAs involved in the control of gene expression in cell differentiation and development.

- Molecular biology techniques for the study of stem cells.

 

2) Molecular basis of pluripotency

- Origin of embryonic stem cells; regulatory circuits in the formation of the mammalian blastocyst.

- Regulation of pluripotency: signaling, "naive" and "primed" states of pluripotency, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory networks, epigenetic control of pluripotency, regulation by miRNAs and lncRNAs.

- Molecular basis of pluripotent stem cell differentiation; examples of differentiation to generate cell types for therapy and research; strategies to improve the efficiency of differentiation.

- Pluripotent stem cells in basic research and regenerative medicine.

 

3) Cell reprogramming and transdifferentiation

- From nuclear transfer to iPS cells;

- Molecular mechanisms of reprogramming; deterministic and stochastic models; early, intermediate and late phases in reprogramming; epigenetic memory.

- Patient-specific iPS cells; applications of reprogramming in basic research and regenerative medicine; "genome editing" techniques to correct mutations; generation of organoids in vitro.

- Transdifferentiation: methods and applications; epigenetic basis of transdifferentiation; examples of transdifferentiation to obtain cells of therapeutic interest (muscle, neurons).