Posted: January 31, 2012 11:39:47 AM PST
Updated: January 31, 201211:39:48 AM PST
Summary:
The San Jose Mercury News published a story on the announcement by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine that mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system:
Bypassing stem cells, mouse skin cells have been converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the animal's nervous system, according to new research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The startling success of this method seems to refute the idea that "pluripotency" -- the ability of stem cells to become nearly any cell in the body -- is necessary for a cell to transform from one cell type to another. It raises the possibility that embryonic stem cell research, as well as a related technique called "induced pluripotency," could be supplanted by a more direct way of generating cells for therapy or research.
