It offers the possibility of a personalised supply of all kinds of tissue types, without cloning, donated eggs or the destruction of embryos. If the latest breakthrough in stem cell technology in mice is repeated in humans – and Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned that experiments on human cells are now under way – it could demolish the ethical objections that have dogged the field.
Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi of Kyoto University in Japan have produced what are effectively embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mouse skin cells by exposing them to four messenger chemicals that are found in embryonic but not adult…
