Induced Pluripotency and Epigenetic Reprogramming
- 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
- 2Whitehead Institute and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
- Correspondence: khochedlinger{at}helix.mgh.harvard.edu
SUMMARY
Induced pluripotency defines the process by which somatic cells are converted into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) upon overexpression of a small set of transcription factors. In this article, we put transcription factor–induced pluripotency into a historical context, review current methods to generate iPSCs, and discuss mechanistic insights that have been gained into the process of reprogramming. In addition, we focus on potential therapeutic applications of induced pluripotency and emerging technologies to efficiently engineer the genomes of human pluripotent cells for scientific and therapeutic purposes.
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