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The results he discussed at the conference now appear in a recent issue of Nature, and provide a novel recipe for converting adult endothelial cells into immature HSCs (Nature 545, 439–445; 2017). The protocol, which relied on transient expression of specific transcription-factor genes, was developed using mice (see another protocol by a different group using human pluripotent stem cells: Nature 545, 432–438; 2017), but provides an important proof of principle and a foundation for moving into humans, where clinicians hope to induce HSCs directly from a patient’s own tissue. Dustin M. Graham 20 years to achieve; in vitro generation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). In the darkness of the Carson Family Auditorium at Rockefeller University, Matt Kohn, a science officer from NYSTEM, was waving to get the speaker’s attention. Shahin Rafii looked up from the lectern and asked how much time he had left for his presentation. “Two minutes? Perfect... plenty of time.” Rafii, an animated and fast-talking stem cell scientist from Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, was moving particularly quickly through his slides, while deftly ensuring the most important details were hitting the audience. His pace had to be forgiven. In 30 minutes, he was trying to sum up a quest that has taken stem cell biologists nearly Building new blood cells