Elucidating the Diverse Biochemical Potency of Human OCT4

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Our proposal is based on our recent discoveries pioneered by our group that define direct human cell fate alteration from one somatic cell to another. Our program now makes the extension and transition to biochemical and chemical methods to control and engineer this process using natural science approaches. We focus on a single transcription factor (TF), human OCT4, which represents the most diverse self-regulating factor controlling transcriptional activation/repression. OCT4 has been described as being restricted to preimplantation embryos and germ cells, and plays a critical role in embryonic stem cells and induction of pluripotency from mature cells activating native OCT4, known as induced pluripotent stem cells.