Transdifferentiation Meets Next-generation Biotechnologies

Transdifferentiation is the process of converting terminally differentiated cells to another cell type. Being less time-consuming and free from tumorigenesis, it a promising alternative directed differentiation, which provides sources for tissue regeneration therapy disease modeling. In past decades, transdifferentiation was found happen within or across lineages, being induced by overexpression key transcription factors, chemical cocktail treatments, etc. Implementing next-generation biotechnologies, such as genome editing tools scRNA-seq, improves current protocols has potential facilitate discovery in new pathways transdifferentiation, will accelerate its application clinical use.