Cloning tech used to create breakthrough stem cells for research
Last week researchers from the New York Stem Cell Foundation
reported in Nature that they had used a cloning technique to
create embryonic stem cells which could be derived directly from
patients. And the breakthrough heralded a possible resurgence of
a scientific field aimed at generating a range of new,
customized stem cells that could fight disease or replace their
lost or damaged counterparts. "I would call it a major advance,"
noted stem cell researcher George Daley told Bloomberg's Robert
Langreth. "It is a big deal." Shinya Yamanaka set off a flurry
of excitement when he proved that he had a formula for turning
an adult cell into an embryonic stem cell. But since that big
breakthrough there's been a growing body of evidence that those
cells are riddled with abnormalities that make them useless for
therapeutic purposes. These new reprogrammed cells could offer
investigators a much better approach to studying new drugs for
Alzheimer's and o