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In August, Mahendra Rao returned to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) after a six-year hiatus to head the new Intramural Center for Regenerative Medicine. The $52-million center was launched in early 2010 by the agency to develop new therapies using stem cell approaches. Elie Dolgin spoke to Rao to find out how he plans to turn stem cell discoveries into cell-based therapies.