Author Spotlight: Reprogramming Cancer Cells to iPSCs to Study Disease Progression and Treatment Targets

1 One of the most challenging aspects of studying PDAC2 or pancreatic cancer is the availability 3 of an experimental model 4 that can recapitulate the progression 5 of PDAC from the early proline stages 6 to the aggressive state. 7 The other challenge is to experimentally capture 8 the plasticity and heterogeneity of PDAC. 9 So using PDAC IPS cells will help us tackle 10 some of these challenges 11 and expand our experimental tools to study this disease.

12 We have established a robust protocol 13 to reprogram PDACs to iPS cells. 14 By generating more iPS lines from many more PDAC patients, 15 we can study the transition of pancreatic cancer 16 from early to advanced stages and see the commonalities 17 and differences between these lines. 18 This will help us discover early diagnostic markers 19 that cover more patients, 20 and generate drugs that target 21 the different states of the disease.

22 The interesting question that came out of reprogramming 23 PDAC to iPS cells is what makes this cancer 24 so resistant to sulfate conversion compared to normal cells? 25 Is this due to specific genes or genetic mutations 26 that tell us something about cancer cell identity?