Researchers and scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore have identified two separate types of genes that help to regulate and control the growth of embryonic stem cells, which may lead to further developments in findings in the field of embryonic stem cell research.

Dr. Huck-Hui Ng has helped to isolate and identify to specific genes, called Jmjd1a and Jmjd2c, which are thought to regulate the self-renewal process in such stem cells. "These are new pathways that the ES cell uses to counteract inappropriate silencing of key pluripotent genes. Perturbation of these pathways affects the maintenance of the ES cells," said Dr. Ng.

Because embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, they have the ability to differentiate, or become any type of specialized cell within the human body, except the placenta. They also create new and unspecialized stem cells that are developed through a process known as self-renewal. Further education and understanding of this self-renewal process will help to develop long-term maintenance of health and viable embryonic stem cell lines.

Dr. Ng and his fellow scientists are delving into investigations on how to modify various structures that are influenced by the embryonic stem cell function and gene transcription processes. They have discovered that the Jmjd1a and Jmjd2c genes encode enzymes that regulate the self-renewal process in embryonic stem cells found in mice.  Depletion of those two components reduced the capability of self-renewal processing, which led them to believe that they are required for maintaining the ability to regenerate embryonic stem cells.