Foreword

The stem cell field has seen several dramatic breakthroughs in the past decade. These include improvements in deriving ESC lines by a variety of methods as well as using adult cells and transforming them into pluripotent cells using subsets of transcription factors, microRNA and other regulatory proteins. These advance have resulted in an explosion in the number of pluripotent cells available.

Pluripotent stem cells have been derived from young and aged individuals, individuals of varying ethnic backgrounds, individuals carrying specific disease mutations as well as from cohorts of individuals carrying specific genetic traits.

It has quickly become clear that one needs to develop methods of comparing cell types and rapidly analyzing similarities and differences so that one can hone in on key regulatory pathways or molecules. Computational or mathematical simulation is also a powerful tool allowing quantitative description and systems exploration of pathways or networks. Moreover,methods or tools must be developed to dissect the large-scale and high-throughput “omics” data available for studiesof these important cells.

It is in response to these needs that Dr. Ming Zhan has compiled this book on Computational Biology of Embryonic Stem Cells. Leading authorities in the field describe theories and techniques to extract and explore useful information from different cell populations that have been grown in different laboratories under differing conditions. The contributors also describe various algorithms and data mining techniques to understand the roles for microRNA, antisense, methylation and transcription factor regulation of stem cell proliferation and differentiation.

It is rare to find all of these methodologies andanalyses well compiled in a useful and logically organized manner, and I hope that the readers of this book will find it as valuable as I did.