5-Azacytidine is an analog of the nucleoside cytidine which can be incorporated into DNA and RNA. 5-Azacytidine acts as an epigenetic modifier by incorporating into DNA where it irreversibly binds to DNA methyltransferases, thus inhibiting their activity. REPROGRAMMING· Increases reprogramming efficiency of mouse fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by inducing full reprogramming of partially reprogrammed cells (Mikkelsen et al.).· Resets epigenetic memory in mouse iPS cells, in combination with Trichostatin A (Kim et al.). DIFFERENTIATION· Enhances differentiation to cardiomyocytes from human embryonic stem cells (Yoon et al.).CANCER RESEARCH· Wide range of anti-metabolic activities when tested against cultured cancer cells and an effective chemotherapeutic agent for acute myelogenous leukemia