An engineered Sox17 induces somatic to neural stem cell fate transitions independently from pluripotency reprogramming.

This article focuses on the development of an efficient method for directly converting somatic cells into induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) without passing through a pluripotent state. It is reported that the researchers used an engineered version of the Sox17 transcription factor, called eSox17FNV, to reprogram embryonic and aged mouse fibroblasts into iNSCs. It is further reported that this approach bypasses pluripotency reprogramming and produces iNSCs more rapidly and efficiently.