Transdifferentiation Meets Next-generation Biotechnologies

Abstract

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