Harvard Medical School scientists and associates have discovered that reprogrammed stem cells–those derived from fully differentiated adult cells–preserve a memory of where they came from.

That memory appears to influence the cells’ development; reprogrammed stem cells are more easily converted back to their original identity, according to a study released online today in Nature.

The findings could affect research into the two main uses for reprogrammed stem cells: growing efforts to study disease in cells derived from patients with those diseases, and the development of replacement cell therapies.