BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

(Pluri)potent acid

February 27, 2014 8:00 AM UTC

Academics and companies alike are scrambling-and thus far failing-to reproduce a surprisingly simple method for generating pluripotent mouse stem cells that uses an external stress stimulus to trigger reprogramming. Whether the method simply does not work or just faces initial hurdles similar to those experienced by other induced pluripotent stem cell-generating technologies remains to be seen.

If it does work, the technique offers minimal invasiveness without the need for genetic reprogramming factors, nuclear transfer or small molecules...