Blood drawn with a simple needle stick can be coaxed into producing stem cells that may have the ability to form any type of tissue in the body, three independent papers report in the July 2 Cell Stem Cell. The new technique will allow scientists to tap a large, readily available source of personalized stem cells.
"Huge" is an understatement. To read the rest of the article, click here.
Clearly it is an advance, however
Linda Francis "This is an interesting article. What I hope is that those who read it do not make the leap that we are ready to take blood, reverse differentiate the cell into an Pluripotent Stem cell, and begin to treat Parkinson's Patients, and other genetically based diseases that can benefit from Stem Cells. This should never be used as a therapeutic SC ...(tharr be more) Peer into the depthstreatment, for human disease. At best, this method is a model for studying other diseases that can benefit from SC therapy...in rodents, which are not always a good model for the human. The point is that there is potential to develop an "assay" for diseases that can be treated effectively by SC. And Agreed, that is a milestone. But 4 new viral genes in a cell, alters its identity significantly, it is an unnatural event in nature, and will not fully function as a real SC. These reverse differentiated SC, should also contain the virus used in cell bio labs to immortalize the cells once they find a good, well characterized, SC. That way all researchers, can use the same new "cell line" and standardize the results. Science moves forward, another fraction of an inch."