Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and collaborators at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine published findings in Nature Communications that cover a new mechanism cells use to protect their identities and ward off reprogramming attempts. Continued study of the obstacles to cellular reprogramming may lead to treatments that can help the heart repair itself after injury.

Sugar-linked proteins emerge as barriers

Prior research had pointed the scientists to a type of protein heavily decorated with sugar molecules, a process known as glycosylation. Tests of these sugar-bearing proteins found that a family of proteoglycan-modifying proteins called carbohydrate sulfotransferases was a previously unrecognized class of reprogramming barriers.