A new method to reprogram human cells to better mimic embryonic stem cells
It's quite a leap to imagine that developmental processes in cells are entirely reversible, but maybe it's possible.  The main thing to look at in this study is this:<p>> "Professor Polo said the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the iPS epigenome aberrations and their correction were not fully known, and further research was needed to understand them."<p>Think about the truly ridiculous level of programmatic fidelity involved in human (or any mammalian) reproduction. Two cells, one from the XY male and one from the XX female, merge to form a viable zygote. One cell.  Somehow, that cell contains all the information necessary to develop into to a kangaroo, or a whale, or a human, or a naked mole rat.  Hundreds of different cell types, expressing thousands of celluar receptor proteins, to keep it all coordinated.<p>A lot of the developmental processes involve selective deactivation of large regions of the genome (nerve cells don't need much of what heart cells need, and so on), but somehow it's all coordinated.  What they're claiming is that this selective deactivation can somehow be reversed, but they don't quite understand how, at a molecular-structural level.<p>It all points to the 3D structure of the genome being important at many levels, but there's no good way to experimentally analyze that yet, not really.