A group of researchers from The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a small synthetic molecule that can control the fate of embryonic stem cells. This compound, called cardiogenol C, causes mouse embryonic stem cells to selectively differentiate into “cardiomyocytes,” or heart muscle cells, an important step on the road to developing new therapies for repairing damaged heart tissue.
