Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Date: November 19, 2010
Summary:
High hopes rest on stem cells: one day, they may be used to treat many diseases. To date, embryos are the main source of these cells, but this raises ethical problems. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have now managed to convert amniotic fluid cells into pluripotent stem cells. These amniotic fluid-derived iPS cells are hardly distinguishable from embryonic stem cells - however, they "remember" where they came from. (PLoS One, October 29, 2010)
