Stanford

Vittorio Sebastiano

Germ cells, preimplantation embryos and pluripotent stem cells at first glance seem to have nothing in common. A more careful look, though, reveals that they are very closely linked to each other. The zygote originates from the fusion of two highly specialized germ cells (the sperm and the oocyte) and in a few days develops into a blastocyst with a pluripotent cell population (the inner cell mass). These cells diverge from the extraembryonic cells of the trophoectoderm and can give rise to embryonic stem cells, in which a perpetual pluripotent and undifferentiated state is maintained.

The thread of Ariadne that connects germ cells, preimplatation development and pluripotent stem cells is the focus of my research, with a specific interest in human development. My long-term goals are several fold: 1. Understanding the biology of germ cells and and their ability to sustain early phases of preimplantation development; 2. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate very early cell fate decisions in human embryos; 3. Understanding the biology of Pluripotent Stem Cells and the mechanisms that lead to their formation also in the context of iPSCs derivation.

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News Releases

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Recent Publications

Efficient Endoderm Induction from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells by Logically Directing Signals Controlling Lineage Bifurcations. Cell stem cell
Loh, K. M., Ang, L. T., Zhang, J., Kumar, V., Ang, J., Auyeong, J. Q., Lee, K. L., Choo, S. H., Lim, C. Y., Nichane, M., Tan, J., Noghabi, M. S., Azzola, L., Ng, E. S., Durruthy-Durruthy, J., Sebastiano, V., Poellinger, L., Elefanty, A. G., Stanley, E. G., Chen, Q., Prabhakar, S., Weissman, I. L., Lim, B. 2014

SHANK3 and IGF1 restore synaptic deficits in neurons from 22q13 deletion syndrome patients NATURE
Shcheglovitov, A., Shcheglovitova, O., Yazawa, M., Portmann, T., Shu, R., Sebastiano, V., Krawisz, A., Froehlich, W., Bernstein, J. A., Hallmayer, J. F., Dolmetsch, R. E. 2013; 503 (7475): 267-?

Generation and characterization of transgene-free human induced pluripotent stem cells and conversion to putative clinical-grade status STEM CELL RESEARCH & THERAPY
Awe, J. P., Lee, P. C., Ramathal, C., Vega-Crespo, A., Durruthy-Durruthy, J., Cooper, A., Karumbayaram, S., Lowry, W. E., Clark, A. T., Zack, J. A., Sebastiano, V., Kohn, D. B., Pyle, A. D., Martin, M. G., Lipshutz, G. S., Phelps, P. E., Pera, R. A., Byrne, J. A. 2013; 4

Characterization of the human ESC transcriptome by hybrid sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Au, K. F., Sebastiano, V., Afshar, P. T., Durruthy, J. D., Lee, L., Williams, B. A., van Bakel, H., Schadt, E. E., Reijo-Pera, R. A., Underwood, J. G., Wong, W. H. 2013; 110 (50): E4821-30

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Video

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Contact Info

Department of OBGyN
Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell research Building
265 Campus Drive, Room G1167
Stanford, CA 94304-5454

Phone: 650-724-8084

vsebast@stanford.edu

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