The Present and Future of iPS Cells

Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells for short, were first achieved by a team at Kyoto University’s Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences in 2006. Yamanaka Shin’ya, one of the lead researchers, won a Nobel Prize in 2012 for his work on these stem cells, which, thanks to their ability to generate any type of cell in the human body, are viewed as a promising area in the next generation of medical research and treatment. This series looks at progress and problems in the iPS field today.