Researchers help cells forget who they are

They say we can’t escape our past — no matter how much we change, we still have the memory of what came before. The same can be said of our cells.

Mature cells, such as skin or blood cells, have a cellular “memory,” or record of how the cell changed as it developed from an uncommitted embryonic cell into a specialized adult cell. Now, Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers atMassachusetts General Hospital (MGH), in collaboration with scientists from the Institutes of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, have identified genes that, when suppressed effectively, erase a cell’s memory, making it more susceptible to reprogramming and, consequently, making the process of reprogramming quicker and more efficient. Read more