Harvard University scientists have made lines of stem cells, able to turn into any other cell in the body, from bits of skin or blood of 10 patients with genetic diseases including muscular dystrophy and juvenile diabetes.
The findings will help researchers decipher the workings of these diseases, enabling them to study what happens as cells that carry a condition’s genetic seeds develop and age. The lines will be made available for a “nominal fee” to researchers around the world, the Harvard scientists said.