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 , 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…
