By Frank Staubli, Gaelle Messerli and Philip Zimmermann
© NEBION AG. December 22, 2015

In the beginning there is the stem cell; it is the origin of an organism’s life. It is a single cell that can give rise to progeny that differentiate into any of the specialized cells of embryonic or adult tissues..

by Stewart Sell

In this example analysis, we searched for genes most specifically expressed in stem cells as compared to over 1400 other tissues, cell types and cell lines. We identified 42 distinct transcripts, of which several are well known in stem cell research but many others are unknown or have never been associated with stem cells. Interestingly, the list of transcripts not only contains protein-coding genes, but also other transcripts such as lncRNAs. We show how GENEVESTIGATOR^® allows researchers to effectively identify genes highly specific for a cell type and to study the regulation of these genes in response to perturbations. This study also illustrates how to identify other genes co-regulated with selected targets of interest across a set of relevant conditions.