from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the
Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a new, nearly 100 percent
efficient technique for turning blood cells into beating heart
Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., study leader and assistant professor of
oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell
Engineering and the Kimmel Cancer Center, along with Paul
Burridge, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scientist at Johns Hopkins, and
a team of researchers, developed the method for creating simple
and virus-free beating heart cells. studies used viruses to send
genes into cells, which then turned them into stem cells. The
problem with this method is that viruses can mutate genes, which
may introduce cancer in new cells. Zambidis and Burridge have
developed a new method for delivering genes to cells without the
use of viruses. Instead, the new technique involves the use of
plasmids, which are rings of DNA that replicate inside cells and
then degrade over time. In addition, the new technique is
inexpensive, easy a