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Skin Cells Produce Library of Diseased Stem Cells
from the San Diego Union-Tribune (Registration Required)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. stem cell experts have produced a library of the powerful cells using ordinary skin and bone marrow cells from patients, and said Thursday they would share them freely with other researchers.
They used a new method to re-program ordinary cells so they look and act like embryonic stem cells – the master cells of the body with the ability to produce any type of tissue or blood cell.
The new cells come from patients with 10 incurable genetic diseases and conditions, including Parkinson's, the paralyzing disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, juvenile diabetes and Down's Syndrome. Writing in the journal Cell, the team at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston said the point is not yet to treat anyone, but to get as many researchers as possible experimenting with these cells in lab dishes to better understand the diseases.
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