Extreme makeover: Stanford scientists explore new way to change cell's identity

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now proven that skin cells can be tricked to behave like muscle cells , the kind of Muscle cells like skin cells — solely by altering who they hang out with, which is the relative levels of the ingredients inside the cell.
The fickleness of the cells,and the ease with which they make the switch give a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to become something it’s not. Harnessing genetic makeovers allows scientists to have a better understanding on how to induce specialized adult cells to revert to a stem-cell-like state in a process called induced pluripotency. “Currently, inducing pluripotency in adult cells is time consuming and inefficient. We’d like to improve on that, or explore ways to skip that step altogether. We’re coming at the problem from all angles.”

http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2009/may/blau.html