Facilitator Questions

• Initial attempts at producing mice from iPS cells resulted in mice with a high incidence of tumor formation. Why was this, and what might scientists do to overcome these problems?

• Patient samples can be reverted to an ES-like state by either nuclear transfer or iPS technology, before being re-differentiated in vitro. For example, skin cells from an Alzheimer’s disease patient might be used to create Alzheimer’s diseased neurons in vitro, which can be used for research. How might this be an improvement over current mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease?