Binary colloidal crystals (BCCs) as a feeder-free system to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are capable of differentiating into any cell type and provide significant advances to cell therapy and regenerative medicine. However, the current protocol for hiPSC generation is relatively inefficient and often results in many partially reprogrammed colonies, which increases the cost and reduces the applicability of hiPSCs. Biophysical stimulation, in particular from tuning cell-surface interactions, can trigger specific cellular responses that could in turn promote the reprogramming process.

The use of induced pluripotent stem cells for studying and treating optic neuropathies.

Purpose Of Review: The present review aims to provide an update of applications of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for disease modeling, cell/gene therapy, and drug screening for optic neuropathies.

Recent Findings: Degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is a characteristic of optic neuropathies. Human iPSCs can serve as a model to investigate disease pathology and potential repair mechanisms.

Efficient generation of integration-free human induced pluripotent stem cells from keratinocytes by simple transfection of episomal vectors.

Keratinocytes represent an easily accessible cell source for derivation of human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells, reportedly achieving higher reprogramming efficiency than fibroblasts. However, most studies utilized a retroviral or lentiviral method for reprogramming of keratinocytes, which introduces undesirable transgene integrations into the host genome. Moreover, current protocols of generating integration-free hiPS cells from keratinocytes are mostly inefficient.