Time magazine has proclaimed Vladimir Putin its Person of the Year. Which leads us to ponder, as we start a new year, who might deserve that title for Wisconsin for the year just ending.
James Thomson: Already a stem cell pioneer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher led a team that succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. A separate Japanese team did the same thing.
In a Nov. 21 article, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Fauber explained why this is significant: “If these new cells truly have all the beneficial qualities of embryonic stem cells without hidden hazards, it could pave the way to therapies that do not raise the moral concerns associated with the destruction of embryos or therapeutic cloning. At the same time, the new approach could avoid problems of immune rejection because the cells could be matched to the DNA of the patient.”