Deciphering the stem cell machinery as a basis for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying reprogramming

Stem cells provide fascinating prospects for biomedical applications by combining the ability to renew themselves and to differentiate into specialized cell types. Since the first isolation of embryonic stem (ES) cells about 30 years ago, there has been a series of groundbreaking discoveries that have the potential to revolutionize modern life science. For a long time, embryos or germ cell-derived cells were thought to be the only source of pluripotency—a dogma that has been challenged during the last decade. Several findings revealed that cell differentiation from (stem) cells to mature cells is not in fact an irreversible process. The molecular mechanism underlying cellular reprogramming is poorly understood thus far. Identifying how pluripotency maintenance takes place in ES cells can help us to understand how pluripotency induction is regulated. Here, we review recent advances in the field of stem cell regulation focusing on key transcription factors and their functional interplay with non-coding RNAs

Management of Distributed and Heterogeneous Information Resources for Environmental Administrations

Since the mid-eighties, environmental administrations have accumulated an extensive collection of information and knowledge in the form of data, methods, and multimedia documents on a variety of computer systems. In the Environmental Information System (UIS) of Baden-Württemberg a service-oriented approach has been chosen to bring this treasure of information and knowledge to users in public administrations, industry, and to the general public. The guiding idea was to identify data, functionalities, and multimedia information that can be used in many different ways and to supply these information resources as self-contained network services. Implementation is based on WWW technology and the utilization of metainformation. To date, a comfortable solution has been found that can be used by decision-makers in government, administration, and industry as well as by scientists and the general public at regional, national, and international levels