Source: University of California - Davis Health System
Date: August 4, 2011
Summary:
The possibility of developing stem cells from a patient's own skin and using them to treat conditions as diverse as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer has generated tremendous excitement in the stem cell research community in recent years. Such therapies would avoid the controversial need for using stem cells derived from human embryos, and in theory, also bypass immunological problems inherent in using cells from one person to treat another.
A roadmap for finding solutions to the problems identified with iPSCs, written by researchers at UC Davis, is available online and will be published in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. The publication suggests research strategies to advance the field more rapidly toward applications for human diseases.
