In a letter to the Augurst 28th online edition of Nature, J. B. Kim et al. from the Max Planck Institute (Munster, Germany) reported the ability to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with the Oct4 transcription factor. With human fetal neural stem cells, the investigators reprogrammed the cells with just one transcription factor instead of the four transcription factors (Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, and Oct4). The researchers conducted both in vivo and in vitro experiments to demonstrate the pluripotency of the neural iPS (NiPS) cells. Gene expression profiling and epigenetic status of the NiPS resembled the profiles and status of human embryonic stem cells. The authors concluded their "findings demonstrate that the transcription factor Oct4 is sufficient to reprogram human neural stem cells to pluripotency."