Welcome to the Human Pluripotent Cell Core Facility!

The purpose of the Human Pluripotent Cell Core Facility is to provide UNC scientists as well as outside collaborators with the services to successfully conduct basic as well as translational research using human induced pluripotent cells.

The reprogramming technology became available a few years ago, when scientists showed that by introducing into a somatic cell several genes important for the cell’s self-renewal these somatic cells could become pluripotent cells. The so-called human induced pluripotent cells represent a unique and very important source of cells for individualized therapy. Because these cells are derived from a patient’s own cells, the problems associated with tissue rejection are eliminated. Also, the induced pluripotent cells generated from patients with various diseases are an important research resource to study how these diseases develop.