title: iPSC technology: platform for drug discovery. Point.
abstract: Disease-specific pluripotent stem cells are a source of affected cell types for drug discovery. The ability to reprogram somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provides a platform for generating cells from patients with different disease severities and drug metabolism responses. Although challenges remain for efficient differentiation and high-throughput scale-up, we propose that iPSCs have distinct advantages over embryonic stem cells (ESCs) for evaluating drugs by performing clinical trials on a dish.
authors.affiliation: Ontario Human iPS Cell Facility, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. jellis@sickkids.ca
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhatia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000637:transplantation