Researchers Announce Stem Cell Breakthrough

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England, have developed a new technique to reprogram human cells, such as skin cells, into stem cells. Cells have traditionally been reprogrammed using four specific regulatory proteins, however Pentau Liu and colleagues found that adding two more regulatory factors to the method increases the efficiency of cell reprogramming by 100-fold and generates cells of a higher quality at a faster rate. "The reprogrammed cells developed by our team have proved to have the same capabilities as mouse stem cells," said Liu. "Our approach will enable researchers to easily engineer and reprogram human stem cells to generate cell types for cell replacement therapies in humans."