Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: October 17, 2008
Summary:
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have successfully reprogrammed adult human cells called keratinocytes -- attached to a single hair -- into induced pluripotent stem cells, which by all appearances looked and acted like embryonic stem cells. And, the researchers have boosted reprogramming efficiency more than 100-fold, while cutting the time it takes in half. Their method, published ahead of print in the Oct. 17, 2008 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, not only provides a practical and simple alternative for the generation of patient- and disease-specific stem cells, which had been hampered by the low efficiency of the reprogramming process, but also spares patients invasive procedures to collect suitable starting material, since the process only requires a single human hair.
