From this article: iPSC's or induced pluripotent stem cells are somatic cells that have been driven to acquire an induced pluripotent cell state. Somatic cells can be any cell of the body except sperm cells, egg cells and undifferentiated stem cells. Investigators can induce these cells to 'return' to a stem cell like state by forcing the expression of key transcription factors, and by genome-wide remodeling of epigenetic marks.

There is an entire spectrum of different iPSC's that can be generated, but much is not yet known. Future applications include using them for regenerative medicine, drug discovery, etc.

Recently there were several arictles published in nature,

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v516/n7530/full/516172a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v516/n7530/full/nature14046.html

amongst others. Also you can check out http://www.stemformatics.org/ for more information on stem cells and research being done.

From this article: iPSC's or induced pluripotent stem cells are somatic cells that have been driven to acquire an induced pluripotent cell state. Somatic cells can be any cell of the body except sperm cells, egg cells and undifferentiated stem cells. Investigators can induce these cells to 'return' to a stem cell like state by forcing the expression of key transcription factors, and by genome-wide remodeling of epigenetic marks.

There is an entire spectrum of different iPSC's that can be generated, but much is not yet known. Future applications include using them for regenerative medicine, drug discovery, etc.

Recently there were several articles published in nature:

• Stem cells: A designer's guide to pluripotency
• Genome-wide characterization of the routes to pluripotency

amongst others. Also you can check out http://www.stemformatics.org/ for more information on stem cells and research being done.