Surprise finding has implications for wound repair therapies and inhibiting cancer

While investigating a rare genetic disorder, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a ubiquitous signaling molecule is crucial to cellular reprogramming, a finding with significant implications for stem cell-based regenerative medicine, wound repair therapies and potential cancer treatments. Karl Willert, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues were attempting to use induced pluripotent stem cells to create a "disease-in-a-dish" model for focal dermal hypoplasia , a rare inherited disorder caused by mutations in a gene called PORCN.

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