Source: University of Connecticut
Date: September 29, 2010
Summary:
University of Connecticut researchers have used skin cells from patients with the genetic disorders Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Like human embryonic stem (hES) cells, iPS cells can become any cell type in the human body, including brain cells, also known as neurons. Since both of these syndromes have brain abnormalities, neurons were produced from the iPS cells for each of the two diseases so that the root causes could be understood and new therapies developed. This study is published in the September 27 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
