In a major advance, UW-Madison researchers say they have genetically reprogrammed human skin cells to create cells indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.
This significant scientific achievement also potentially remakes the tumultuous political and ethical landscape of stem cell biology, as human embryos may no longer be needed to obtain the blank slate stem cells capable of becoming any of the 220 types of cells in the human body.
The new technique would avoid without the ethical and legal constraints that now hamper stem cell use use by scientists. Another major advantage of using reprogrammed skin cells is that any cells developed for therapeutic purposes can be customized to the patient.