Infigen, Inc. will use NIH SBIR grant support to develop a model for evaluating the molecular events associated with cellular reprogramming. No such model has been reported to date in the literature, impeding rational development of emerging technology dependent upon proper reprogramming such as cell-based therapeutics and nuclear transfer technologies. Infigen's proposed model will focus on porcine embryos reconstructed by nuclear transfer, and will provide the ability to systematically classify such embryos for their ability to develop to live birth (developmental competence). The immediate application of the technology will be to speed development of commercially viable nuclear transfer technologies for production of animals that can produce rejection-resistant organs. The model also will provide the basis for future development of the same systematic approach for production of animals that can produce low-cost pharmaceutical drugs, and for development of cell-based therapeutics dependent upon successful reprogramming. Phase I studies will confirm observed molecular differences between developmentally competent and developmentally incompetent individual embryos. Phase II will focus on development of the molecular model described above.
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