Patent ID: 8735153

Claim:
A method of differentiating an isolated mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell or population of mouse embryonic stem cells into a selected lineage, comprising the step of administering one or more polynucleotides encoding one or more fusion proteins, each fusion protein comprising a transcriptional regulatory domain and a zinc finger protein (ZFP) comprising 3 zinc finger domains comprising recognition helix region sequences as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2, 3 and 4 to said embryonic stem cell or population of embryonic stem cells, such that expression of the Oct-4 gene is modulated as compared to normal levels in the embryonic stem cell such that the embryonic stem cell is differentiated into a selected lineage and further wherein repression of Oct-4 expression to less than 50% of normal levels results in differentiation into trophectoderm and activation of Oct-4 expression to greater than 150% of normal levels results in differentiation into endoderm and mesoderm.