Director: Prof. Elena Ibàñez de Sans. Course 2014-2015. Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Faculty of Biosciences, Bellatera (08193), Spain.

Bachelor Final Project in Biochemistry Degree

The aim of the project is to develop a novel method of human oocyte activation based on microinjection of the messenger RNA of PLCZ1. Part of this goal also involves developing an analytical procedure in order to test (i) the functionality of the method as well as (ii) the derivation capacity.

Parthenogenesis is the formation of an embryo without sperm contribution. In mammals only occurs spontaneously and the embryo never reaches implantation.

Embryo will show Inner Cell Mass at the blastocyst stage so we can derive stem

cells. Absence of ♂ contribution is the key idea for coping with the ethical issues. Homozygous human pSC are also homozygous for HLA genes. That implies

immunomatching with the oocyte donor and a specific population group. The low efficiency of derivation is the major drawback of pSC applications

because human oocytes are a limited source.

Otherwise, several experiments have identified PLCZ as the sperm factor that triggers the signaling pathway of activation on oocytes.

BACKGROUND

AIM

This proposal of a novel method of oocyte activation to derive human pSC could be an alternative to current strategies that would open the door to greater availability of human homozygous pSC for research and clinic use.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

WORKFLOW

REFERENCES

EXPECTED RESULTS

Mitalipov et al. Stem Cells Translational Medicine, 3: 290-298 (2014)

[1] Revazova et al. Cloning and Stem Cells, 9(3): 432-449 (2007).

[2] Mai et al. Cell Research, 17: 1008-1019 (2007).

[3] Revazova et al. Cloning and Stem Cells, 10(1): 11- 24 (2008).

[4] Chen et al. Cell Stem Cell, 4(2): 103-106 (2009).