They're calling it "biological alchemy": induced stem cells proliferate

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 1 week (www.newscientist.com)

CALL it biological alchemy: specialist pancreatic cells that secrete digestive enzymes have been converted directly into insulin-producing beta cells. Meanwhile, epithelial cells from the back of the eye have been coaxed into becoming a versatile, new type of stem cell.

Both advances, reported last week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), may take us closer to a "regenerative" approach to repairing damaged tissue. And both are products of a wave of enthusiasm that has built since Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan showed that it is possible to "reprogram" adult cells back to an embryonic state. It's "Shinya-mania," jokes George Daley of the Children's Hospital Boston.

Yamanaka infected skin cells with retroviruses carrying the genes for four transcription factors - proteins that regulate the activity of other genes by binding to DNA. The viruses inserted themselves ...

Keywords: stem cell research stem cells beta cells insulin regenerative medicine diabetes pancreas ethics differentiation embryos Cloning