LAUSR

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) present a fascinating and powerful system for generating specialized cell types of the human body. Culture and directed differentiation of these cells however requires an understanding of the pluripotent ground state and of how cell lineage decisions in this system are made. In this review, we highlight both these aspects in light of recent findings and technical progress. Hence, advances in culturing the human preimplantation embryo beyond the implantation barrier and in analyzing it at the single‐cell level shed new light on the hESC tissue of origin. We argue that these findings have important implications for our view of hESC identity and we critically discuss recent efforts in converting these cells to a more primitive state. With an emphasis on the roles played by major signaling pathways, we furthermore attempt to infer key principles underlying cell fate control in hESCs from recently published work. This integrated model combines defined signaling pathway manipulation with the regulation of core hESC genes, to aid in controlling cell lineage allocation in a rational manner. Stem Cells 2017;35:277–283