Introduction to induced pluripotent stem cells: advancing the potential for personalized medicine

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology has enormous potential to advance medical therapy by personalizing regenerative medicine and creating novel human disease models for research and therapeutic testing. Before this technology is broadly used in the clinic, we must realistically evaluate its disease modeling and therapeutic potential. Recent advances including the use of iPS cells to successfully model spinal muscular atrophy in vitro, as well as new techniques in generating iPS cells with recombinant proteins have accelerated the prospects of iPS cells for clinical use in regenerative therapy. This review explores the development and limitations of iPS cell technology, presents a critical comparison of iPS cells and embryonic stem cells, and discusses potential clinical applications and future research directions.