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A recent biotech breakthrough enables the creation of embryos from skin cells, which are genetic copies of the donor. This breakthrough by scientists at Stemagen Corp holds the promise of custom-made embryonic stem cell medical treatment. Medical researchers believe that stem cell therapy has the potential to radically change the treatment of human disease.
Scientists at the company, Stemagen, which is based in San Diego, said Thursday that they were the first to use human adult cells to create cloned embryos that advanced to the stage known as a blastocyst, from which embryonic stem cells typically are extracted.
However, the researchers did not derive embryonic stem cells. That left some experts skeptical. “It’s an important step toward the ultimate goal of making patient-specific stem cell lines via nuclear transfer,” said Dr. George Q. Daley, a stem cell researcher at Harvard and Children’s Hospital Boston, using another term for cloning. But he said skepticism would be erased only when stem cell lines were derived.
(nytimes)
References: washingtonpost, nytimes
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