With speed and efficiency that will make waves in laboratories and legislatures around the world, scientists have created nearly a dozen new lines of human embryonic stem (ES) cells, ones that for the first time carry the genetic signature of diseased or injured patients. Last year, a group led by veterinarian Woo Suk Hwang and gynecologist Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University reported the first–and until now the only–derivation of ES cells from human nuclear transfer experiments (Science, 12 March 2004, p. 1669). Those efforts yielded just one cell line from more than 200 tries, but the researchers report online in Science this week that they can consistently derive a cell line in fewer than 20 tries.
Office of Strategic Communication