Several years ago, biologists discovered that regular body
cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells — cells with the ability
to become any other type of cell. Such cells hold great promise for treating
many human diseases.
These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are usually
created by genetically modifying cells to overexpress four genes that make them
revert to an immature, embryonic state. However, the procedure works in only a
small percentage of cells.