Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute used ordinary skin cells and bone marrow from people with a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's, Huntington's and Down syndrome to produce the stem cells.
This early step, using a new technique, could help speed up efforts to find treatments for some of the most confounding ailments, the scientists said.
The new cells will allow researchers to "watch the disease progress in a dish, that is, to watch what goes right or wrong," Doug Melton, co-director of the institute, said during a teleconference.
This is very good news & great progress to help those afflicted with debilitating diseases! Hopefully, with these manufactured lines, a cure can one day be found.
Another salient point: all this progress was done (once again) with adult stem cells. Adult stem cells which were morphed into an embryonic state.
I'm quite certain if the advance had been accomplished with 'pure' embryonic stem cells that fact would have somehow been incorporated into all the headlines.
Not that there is an agenda or anything...
