Source: Harvard University
Date: September 30, 2010
Summary:
A group of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made so significant a leap forward in reprogramming human adult cells that HSCI co-director Doug Melton, who did not participate in the work, said the Institute will immediately begin using the new method to make patient and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, know as iPS cells. The findings today were given advance on-line publication by Cell Stem Cell.
Researchers at the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston used synthetic mRNA to reprogram adult human skin cells, fibroblasts, turning them into cells that are apparently identical to human embryonic stem cells, the initial building blocks of all the organs of the body. They have then used other mRNA to program the new cells, which they are calling RiPS (RNA-iPS), cells to develop into specific cells types – in the current study they created muscle cells. Because the mRNA carries genetic instructions, but does not enter the DNA of the target cells, the resulting tailored cells should be safe to use in treating patients, Rossi said, unlike the iPS cells now being created around the world.
