Stem cells and 'induced pluripotent stem cells' (iPS cells) attract considerable attention in medicine. So far, iPS cells which morphologically and functionally resemble embryonic stem cells have been generated by means of viruses through the reprogramming of somatic cells for research purposes. Typically, optical techniques such as light microscopy in combination with fluorescent markers are applied, sometimes accompanied with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), for the characterization and isolation of both tissue-specific stem and iPS cells. Nowadays, modern laser-based techniques such as nonlinear multiphoton microscopy and optical transfection using femtosecond lasers are used for iPS and stem cell imaging as well as for virus-free optical reprogramming.
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