Hongkui Deng has made seminal contributions in cell fate reprogramming. In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka and colleagues discovered that forced expression of transcriptional factors can convert fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The ability to produce and engineer patient-derived iPSCs marked a new era of regenerative medicine. Still, the application of transcriptional factor-based reprogramming is limited due to potential random transgene integrations, and expression of oncogenes. 

Hongkui Deng pioneered an approach of using small molecules to convert fibroblasts into iPSCs (termed CiPSCs, for chemically induced pluripotent stem cells). He showed that CiPSCs are germline-competent and can be used to successfully produce mice (2013), and revealed the underlying molecular pathways leading to CiPSC generation (2015, 2018). Deng also succeeded in generating human CiPSCs and demonstrated that human CiPSC-derived islets can ameliorate diabetes in non-human primates, showcasing the great clinical potential of hCiPSCs (2022a, 2022b, 2023) .

Deng's seminal and transformative work has opened a new route for cellular reprogramming, with broad and long-term impact on stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

Hongkui Deng, born in 1963 in Beijing, China. PhD: 1995 from University of California, Los Angeles. Current position: Boya Chair Professor of Peking University and Leading Scientist of Changping Laboratory, China.

References:

Hou et al. (2013) Science 341:651

Zhao et al. (2015) Cell 163:1678

Zhao et al. (2018) Cell Stem Cell 23:31

Guan et al. (2022a) Nature 605:325

Liuyang et al (2023) Cell Stem Cell 30:450

Du et al. (2022) Nature Medicine 28:272