Seeking fate—CRISPRa screens reveal new neural lineage and reprogramming factors

It is still one of the most intriguing questions in biology, how the multitudes of cell types a single organism possesses, are adequately born during development. It is clear that there are transcription factors with sufficient activity to drive cells towards specific cell identities, however to date the known genes are limited to a handful of linages (e.g., pluripotency, neurogenesis, β-cell development, etc.) and even in these cases we are far from a comprehensive understanding of contributing factors and molecular mechanisms.