Scientists in the United States and Japan announced yesterday that they have developed artificial stem cells from adult mouse cells. If the approach can be retooled for humans, they say, it would avoid the ethical quicksand that surrounds the use of stem cells drawn from nascent human embryos.
“The real challenge is translating this to human cells, which seem far more resistant” to the kind of manipulation scientists used, notes Clive Svendsen, a stem-cell researcher at the University of Wisconsin’s Waisman Center in Madison, Wis. Still, he adds, “it is truly amazing that they can produce cells that look like embryonic stem cells.”