New cell-development technique may obviate need for stem-cell research

BBC : Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in converting mouse skin cells into “neural precursor” cells, which can develop into three types of brain cell. The group’s findings , published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may be important for certain medical therapies, such as bone marrow transplants. Until now such transplants have relied on stem cells, which can divide and differentiate into many different specialized cell types. Stem-cell research has been hampered by ethical concerns, however, because one source of the cells has been human embryos. More work will have to be done to re-create the experiment using human skin cells.