Protein-induced pluripotent cell technology and uses thereof

1. A method of generating human protein-induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSC), comprising:

i) producing reprogramming proteins by bacterial expression, wherein the reprogramming proteins comprise the combination of Klf-4, Oct-4, Sox-2, c-myc (KOSM);

ii) modifying the bacterially expressed reprogramming proteins produced from step i) by mixing the proteins with a QQ-reagent comprising polyethylenimine (PEI) and DOTAP/DOPE;

iii) delivering the modified reprogramming proteins produced from step ii) into nuclei of starting human somatic cells, using a QQ-protein transduction technique;

iv) repeating several cell reprogramming cycles sufficient to create human reprogrammed piPSC;

v) moving the human reprogrammed piPSC from step iv into a feeder-free medium for expansion; and

vi) expanding and passaging the human reprogrammed piPSC from step v) as a whole dish of cells, with the proviso that colony picking is not performed, thereby generating homogeneous human piPSC.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further including the step of in vitro labeling the reprogramming proteins with a small molecule fluorescence probe prior to said modifying step (ii).

3. The method according to claim 2 , further including monitoring the efficiency of QQ-protein delivery into the nuclei of the starting human somatic cells.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising differentiating the piPSC into a cell type selected from the group consisting of: specific adult stem cells, specific progenitor cells and a different somatic cell type compared to the starting human somatic cells.