Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), since their discovery in 2007, open a broad array of opportunities for research and potential therapeutic uses. The substantial progress in iPSC reprogramming, maintenance, differentiation, and characterization technologies since then has supported their applications from disease modeling and preclinical experimental platforms to the initiation of cell therapies. In this review, we started with a background introduction about stem cells and the discovery of iPSCs, examined the developing technologies in reprogramming and characterization, and provided the updated list of stem cell biobanks. We highlighted several important iPSC-based research including that on autosomal dominant kidney disease and SARS-CoV-2 kidney involvement and discussed challenges and future perspectives.
