PERSPECTIVES E

mbryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise in regenerative medicine. Realizing this potential requires a thorough understanding of the genetic pro-grams regulating their pluripotency and lineage commitment. Recent studies have generated a wealth of information regard-ing the transcriptional circuitry underlying self-renewal and lineage commitment of ES cells. Here we review these studies, focusing on a type of cis-regulatory sequences called enhancers and their potential roles in pluripo-tency and cell fate determination. We also dis-cuss how such information can help ES cel