Towards this purpose, we depleted HDAC11 by siRNAs in A549 and H1650 cells and analyzed the expression of stem cell transcription factors Sox2, Oct4 and Nanog. Additional HDACs like HDAC1 and HDAC6 were also depleted as they were shown to have a role in self-renewal in embryonic stem cells and regulation of Sox2 in cancer respectively29,30. The gene discussed is POU5F1; the disease is cancer.