Source: Boston Globe
Date: June 6, 2007
Summary:
The Boston Globe reports on a breakthrough in stem cell research by Harvard University and Japanese researchers in which skin stem cells were reversed into cells that can function like embryonic stem cells and become all of the human cell types:
"Scientists in Massachusetts and Japan say they have created embryonic stem cells using procedures that might overcome some of the ethical objections to the controversial research as well as a major scientific hurdle. Most dramatically, three of the four research findings announced today used a highly experimental approach that avoids the destruction of embryos, which critics equate to taking a life. Instead, they used genes and retroviruses to coax adult cells back to an embryo-like state."
The report also mentions new source of stem cells that could expedite efforts by researchers Harvard University to make clone human stem cells to match a patient's genetic make-up, avoiding immune system rejection:
"The other project, meanwhile, points to a new, readily available source of embryonic stem cells, which would allow researchers to bypass a bottleneck in current efforts at Harvard University to clone human stem cells genetically matched to a patient with a particular disease -- the inability to find women willing to donate unfertilized eggs for the research. All of the research reported in today's Nature and Cell Stem Cell involved mice, but scientists say they believe the results could be replicated in humans."
