Takahashi–Yamanaka reprogramming experiment

The Takahashi–Yamanaka reprogramming experiment was a 2006 study that converted differentiated mouse fibroblasts into pluripotent stem cells using four defined transcription factors. Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka introduced Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc into embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures and recovered cells that behaved like embryonic stem cells: they formed teratomas containing all three germ layers, and they contributed to the germline of chimeric mice. A 2007 follow-up generated the same cells from adult human dermal fibroblasts using the same four factors. The result showed that a small, molecularly specified set of inputs can reset a differentiated cell toward an