Scientists Produce Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin
Posted on: Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 7:53 amI woke up to this piece of news today. Very promising!
“Two teams of scientists have independently discovered a way to turn ordinary human skin cells into stem cells with the same characteristics as those derived from human embryos, a breakthrough that could open the door for advanced medical therapies.”
Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16470482
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November 21st, 2007 at 9:47 am
As promising as this finding is,I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for this to resolve the issue immediately. As The Wall Street Journal notes, there are plenty of hurdles. “To ferry the genes into the cells, both teams had to use dangerous viruses as a transport mechanism. Unfortunately, the DNA of those viruses can get incorporated into the genetic structure of the cells, potentially causing cancer or other unwanted side effects. Dr. Yamanaka and others are now racing to find a benign virus that won’t trigger those problems.” At this point, it is still very preliminary, and any tangible results are likely years away.
As Robert Blelloch, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California San Francisco, who recently published his own reprogramming experiments based on Dr. Yamanaka’s breakthroughs noted, unlike cloning, “the wonderful thing about this approach is that it’s easy. You’re going to see lots and lots of labs give it a try.”