Previous studies have accomplished direct lineage reprogramming of many cell types to different ones by using defined combinations of transcription factors. Vierbuchen et al. showed that the combined ectopic expression of Ascl1, Brn2 and MyT1L can efficiently reprogram mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) into induced neuronal (iN) cells. In another study, Ascl1 was characterized as the main driver of this process by its activity as a pioneer factor. Previous experiments with Ascl1 single-reprogramming showed that Ascl1 is capable of converting MEFs into iN cells, although the reprogrammed neurons show low levels of maturity. On the other hand, several reprogramming experiments associated MyT1L with a late function by promoting the maturation of iN cells, but not with the capacity to reprogram MEFs into iN cells like Ascl1. However, a mechanistic characterization of MyT1L still needed to be clarified. MyT1L is a member of the MYT1 family, also including MyT1 and MyT3, all zinc-finger transcription factors. Recent work from our laboratory showed that MyT1, a paralog of MyT1L, acts as a repressor of Notch targets, in neural stem/progenitor cells. One of those identified Notch targets was Hes1. In neurogenesis, the Notch pathway induces the activation of the Notch downstream effector Hes1. Hes1 functions as a repressor of proneural genes, such as Ascl1, as well as their target genes. Similar to the neurogenesis context, it is tempting to speculate that in Ascl1-dependent reprogramming Hes1 may be functioning as a repressor of Ascl1 targets in MEFs. The goal of this work is to investigate the role of MyT1L and the Notch signalling pathway in Ascl1-dependent reprogramming of MEFs into iN cells. To evaluate Notch activity in MEFs, I compared the expression levels of two Notch targets, Hes1 and Hes5, between MEFs and neural stem cells. I show that Hes1 expression in MEFs is similar to Hes1 expression in neural stem cells. Hes5 expression is substantially lower in MEFs than in neural stem cells. This suggests low Notch activity in MEFs as previous studies identify the Hes5 promoter as readout of Notch activation. Chemical inhibition of Notch signalling did not alter the Hes1 expression in MEFs. I show that the proximal promoter region of Hes1, that mediates regulation by Notch and MyT1 in neural stem/progenitor cells, is accessible to transcription factor binding in MEFs. Additionally, I show that the Notch effector transcription factor RBPJ binds to the Hes1 proximal promoter region. These results in conjunction with the high levels of Hes1 expression in MEFs suggest that the Notch pathway is not the main regulator of Hes1 expression in these cells. Work from our laboratory showed that, in transcriptional assays, MyT1 represses the Hes1 proximal promoter activity, after Notch activation. Here I show that Myt1L can counteract the Notch activation of the Hes1 promoter in a transcriptional assay. The Hes1 proximal promoter contains three consensus binding sites of the MYT1 family suggesting that MyT1L regulates the Hes1 promoter by direct DNA-binding to this region. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation assay against a tagged version of Myt1L, I show that MyT1L directly binds to the Hes1 promoter region two days after being ectopically expressed in MEFs. Finally I started the optimization of the Ascl1-depedent reprogramming protocol in MEFs. I did observe reprogrammed iN cells after single or combined expression of Ascl1 or Ascl1/MyT1L, respectively. However, the percentage of iN cells to total number of cells in culture revealed low reprogramming efficiency. Additionally, iN cells observed show low levels of maturity in single or combined expression of Ascl1 or Ascl1/MyT1L. Nonetheless, this protocol still needs further improvement. Overall, my findings indicate that MyT1L binds to DNA in MEFs at early stages of the Ascl1-dependent reprogramming protocol. The results suggest that MyT1L represses the expression of Hes1 in Ascl1-dependent reprogramming and this may lead to the activation of the Ascl1 targets that promote iN cell maturation.