In the June 22nd online edition of Stem Cells, S. Ron-Bigger et al from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted a study on reprogramming somatic cells which took some of the air out of using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as an alternative to embryonic stem cells for future cell-based therapeutic applications. The investigators published their study results demonstrating that resetting the epigenetic memory of somatic cells can lead to abnormal epigenetic changes and pathological conditions. Studying the fate of the silenced tumor suppressor gene, p16 (CDKN2A), during reprogramming. Surprisingly, the researchers reported that reprogramming restored p16 expression, irrespective of whether the cells were induced to differentiate. Large scale methylation profiling of donor cells identified hundreds of aberrant methylation sites. On the positive side, many of these sites had restored normal methylation patterns following reprogramming. The authors concluded that "reprogramming approaches may be applied to repair the epigenetic lesions associated with cancer."