Op-Ed: What comes after iPS?

April 7, 2008

It sounds like alchemy: cells within an organism are genetically almost identical, yet they form cell types as disparate as pulsing neurons, engulfing macrophages and enzyme-secreting villus cells. Recently developed techniques appear able to prompt cells from a terminally differentiated state into one in which they not only divide indefinitely but can, in theory, become any cell type found in adults. Last year’s advances in generating such cells from mice and humans have opened what could be a new era of pluripotent stem cell biology. (Nature)