Differentiated somatic cells can be rep rogrammed into induced p luripotent stem cells ( iPS) by transduction of a defined transcrip tion factors. Undoubtedly, iPS cell technology is a great breakthrough of stem cell research field in recent years. As a novelmethod for achieving an embryonic like state without the ethical dilemma of destroying human embryos, iPS cell technology elicit a great p romise for patient specific cell therapy and regen erative medicine. In addition, iPS2cell technology p rovides novel p latforms for research of rep rogramming mecha nism and pathological p rocess of human disease. However, the p resent development of p luripotent cells from indi vidual somatic cells just opened up a new door to stem cell research world, much work remains to be done before iPS cells can be considered as a clinically reliable cell source. Here, the iPS cell research advances in recent years were reviewed and the feasible app lications of iPS cell technology were discussed.