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iPS cells: potent stuff

Nature Methods volume 7, pages 17–19 (2010)Cite this article

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Now that the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells is becoming routine, researchers can get on to the more exciting prospect of using the cells to make discoveries in disease and basic biology. Monya Baker reports.

As Shinya Yamanaka finished the experiments that would win him the 2009 Lasker prize, a stem-cell fraud was prominent in his thoughts. In 2005, Woo Suk Hwang had rocketed to star status for reportedly developing a technique to generate human embryonic stem (ES) cells genetically matched to living patients. This achievement promised to do for human tissue what PCR does for DNA: produce sufficient quantities to make once unthinkable procedures commonplace. But by the end of the year, Hwang's work had been discredited, and stem-cell scientists were on the defensive.

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  1. Monya Baker is Technology Editor at Nature and Nature Methods,

    Monya Baker

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Correspondence to Monya Baker.

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Baker, M. iPS cells: potent stuff. Nat Methods 7, 17–19 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.f.281

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