Today it was announced that researchers have now found a way to enable an adults Skin Cells to act like the controversial STEM cells! Amazingly, these cells can even be used to produce heart and brain cells.
Finally, help is on the way for the millions of people with debilitating diseases who are waiting for answers without crossing the Moral standards they have set for themselves. Talk about Freedom! I realize this is still in it's infant stages, but the out look is very very positive and I am anxious to follow the findings.
Another benefit to using these skin cells instead of the embryonic stem cells is that it will truly eliminate the worry of rejection or the use of rejection drugs, due to the fact that it is a persons own skin. These cells are already acclimated to the body and so it would not be treated as a foreign object by a persons immune system. Incredible!
They are also saying that these cells will eliminate the "testing" of drugs and other things on animals and the like. They can be tested directly on human skin cells. No cloning, no use of human embryos or human eggs for testing. They will actually be able to mimic and study the effects of disease and find better cures for them - even resulting in a quicker time frame due to it being tested directly on human tissue instead of animal. A much welcome change!
Congrats to the Japanese Team and the The US team, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for each achieving the same effect by using a slightly different combination of chemicals.
The induced cells do all the things embryonic stem cells do - its going to completely change the field
Professor James Thomson
University of Wisconsin-Madison
For once we have better science coinciding with better ethics
