Scientists have discovered a virus-free way of turning adult blood cells into stem cells, effectively replacing the need to use cells from human embryos.
“Taking a cell from an adult and converting it all the way back to the way it was when that person was a 6-day-old embryo creates a completely new biology toward our understanding of how cells age and what happens when things go wrong, as in cancer development,” one of the researchers explained.
Efficient methods to produce virus-free iPS cells may speed research to develop stem cell therapies, using nearly all cell types, and may provide a more accurate picture of cell development and biology.
Read more at Johns Hopkins