Induced pluripotent stem cells from discovery to translation.

Induced pluripotent stem cell technology has advanced from discovery to a promising clinical platform with early therapeutic trials and approvals.

• Why it matters: Understanding and overcoming biological variability and manufacturing challenges are crucial for translating iPSC-based therapies into widely accessible treatments, addressing unmet medical needs.
• What they did: The authors review two decades of technological progress, including reprogramming, differentiation, tissue engineering, and genome editing, and analyze operational barriers to therapy development.
• The result: Integrating automation and AI could enable scalable, standardized iPSC-derived therapies, paving the way for a paradigm shift toward engineered biological medicines in the next 20 years.