# Collaboration of chromatin remodeling and signaling pathways in pluripotency

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2020 · $320,964

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Functional specialization in a multicellular organism arises when cell fate is established by a specific gene
expression pattern. During development from a totipotent cell this is accomplished by the synthesis of spatial
and signaling cues that result in epigenetic modifications to elicit unipotent gene expression. Once established,
such gene expression patterns are stable unless disrupted by disease or injury. Remarkably the over
expression of a few proteins can result in reprogramming of an established cell fate to generate induced
pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that have the potential to develop into any of the cells of an embryo just like
embryonic stem cells (ESCs). iPSCs are the ideal starting point for regenerative therapy since they overcome
the ethical and practical concerns of using ESCs. Thus reprogramming provides an ideal model system to
mechanistically define cell identity safeguards. However a critical barrier to studying reprogramming is the low
efficiency (~3%) and differential kinetics (2-3 weeks) of obtaining iPSCs, so that heterogeneous transcriptional
changes are masked in population based studies. We have generated a high efficiency system that combines
epigenetic and signaling regulators. Using this system, in this proposal we will determine the most
parsimonious route of reprogramming to iPSCs and elucidate the chromatin transitions in cells that become
reprogrammed.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9973438
- **Project number:** 2R01GM113033-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Rupa Sridharan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $320,964
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2015-07-10 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9973438

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9973438, Collaboration of chromatin remodeling and signaling pathways in pluripotency (2R01GM113033-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9973438. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*