Münster-based Max Planck scientists decipher causes for Sudden Cardiac Death

iPS-technology brings rare disease in a dish

December 01, 2014

Rare diseases are hereditary conditions that are caused by defects in single genes. To recognize the underlying mechanisms and to develop personalized potential therapies are often major challenges for scientists. By using patient-specific, reprogrammed stem cells, Münster-based scientsits of a team headed by Dr. Boris Greber of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine have now succeeded in gaining important insights into the causes and possible treatments of one rare cardiac disease, which causes the so called Sudden Cardiac Death (PNAS, epub ahead of print, 01.12.2014)

Cardiac cell of a Jervell and Lange Nielsen Syndrome (JLNS) patient in a dish:A JLNS patient donated skin cells that the scientists reprogrammed to iPS cells. From these, they made cardiac cells that they could investigate in a dish. — Cardiac cell of a Jervell and Lange Nielsen Syndrome (JLNS) patient in a dish: A JLNS patient donated skin cells that the scientists reprogrammed to iPS cells. From these, they made cardiac cells that they could investigate in a dish.

© Dr. Miao Zhang

Cardiac cell of a Jervell and Lange Nielsen Syndrome (JLNS) patient in a dish:
A JLNS patient donated skin cells that the scientists reprogrammed to iPS cells. From these, they made cardiac cells that they could investigate in a dish.

© Dr. Miao Zhang

Cardiac muscle cells developed from reprogrammed stem cells from a patient

A JLNS patient donated skin cells, which the scientists reprogrammed to so called iPS cells. They transformed these into cardiac muscle cells that could be investigated in a dish.