In 2006, a major technological breakthrough in science and medicine was made with the report that cells with gene expression/epigenetic profile and developmental potential that are similar to embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can be generated from somatic cells (such as fibroblasts) in mice by using a cocktail of four transcriptional factors1. These cells were termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and the four factors — Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc — were named “Yamanaka factors”. Just one year later, the generation of iPSCs from human fibroblasts was reported from two laboratories simultaneously2,3.
