In this commentary article, we take the view in support of the continued promise of pluripotent stem cell (PSC) research and the potential for curative PSC-derived treatments to be realized within our lifetimes. We address a prominent critique of the PSC field: the failure to-date to successfully transplant lab-grown organs into human patients or to reproducibly demonstrate curative PSC-derived therapies in the clinic.We also discuss the key biological concept of cellular maturation, which is relevant to the eventual widespread clinical application of PSC-therapies. We then examine how an exciting development in the field of genomic engineering has opened up new avenues for discovery in PSC research. Finally, we will comment on possibilities for the future, informed by our experience of actively participating in this research for more than a decade.