iPS, Methods to Produce

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are differentiated somatic cells that have been experimentally reverted to an ESC-like pluripotent state. Their “discovery” (or, more precisely, the first description of a method for their isolation) represents a major breakthrough in stem cell biology that has important implications for regenerative medicine. Although the significant therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is well described (and discussed at length elsewhere in this volume), support for clinical and experimental manipulation of these cells is far from unanimous. Instead, controversy and debate surround the topic of stem cell research (particular in the United States), largely due to the fact that procuring human embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of early-stage fertilized embryos. A moral objection to the use of ESCs has ...