Cell Identity Reprogrammed
Cell identity reprogrammed

        

        
            
        
        
            
                
                    
                        

    
        
            
                NEWS AND VIEWS
                14 October 2019
                
            

            

            
                
                
                    The discovery that cell differentiation can be reversed challenged theories of how cell identity is determined, laying the foundations for modern methods of reprogramming cell identity and promising new regenerative therapies.
                
            
        
        
            
    
        
            
                
                    Samantha A. Morris
                
                
                    
                        
                            Samantha A. Morris is in the Departments of Developmental Biology and of Genetics, and in the Center of Regenerative Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
                        
                    
                
                
                    
                
            
        
    

        
    
    


            
            


        
            
                
                    
                        

                        
                    
                
            

            
                

                

                
                    All cells of an organism derive from a single cell. As development progresses, cells become increasingly specialized to perform defined functions, a commitment that is accompanied by a restriction in the range of potential fates of those cells. In the late nineteenth century, a predominant thought was that, when they differentiate, cells retain only those pieces of heritable information required to maintain cell-type identity and function1. This led to the theory that differentiation is an irreversible process (Fig. 1a). John Gurdon’s seminal paper in Nature on nuclear reprogramming of cell identity, with Tom Elsdale and Michael Fischberg2, provided a remarkable challenge to this dogma, and formed the basis for today’s cell-reprogramming field.
                    
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                Nature 575, 44-45 (2019)
                doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02834-8

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