Reprogramming to Pluripotency and Differentiation of Cells with Synthetic mRNA

Changing cell fate without altering its genome is very desirable in many experimental systems and for cell therapy. Compared to DNA plasmid or viral-based approach, mRNA has the advantage of high transfection efficiency, no danger of changing the genome or creating mutational insertions. Here, we describe a straightforward protocol to synthesize mRNA of genes of interest, and use them to induce pluripotency and direct cell differentiation.