On Monday and Tuesday, hundreds of researchers, stem cell research advocates and investors gathered at the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit, which took place at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. The cell reprogramming technique, which reprograms ordinary skin cells, giving them all the qualities of embryonic stem cells, such as the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body, serving as a sort of repair system for the body, took center stage at the summit.

The new technique opens up the possibility of converting, for example, a bit of heart tissue into cardiac muscle cells for people who suffered a heard attack and it is faster. The new method combines gene therapy and stem cell research. “The goal is to create cells that are missing or defective in people. It’s very exciting,” said Douglas A. Melton, a cell biologist and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the research. The study is the latest in a series of advances in stem cell research.

U.S. scientists managed to transform skin cells taken from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) persons into the motor neurons, which are exactly the type of cells that degenerate in patients who suffer from this disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, using a cell reprogramming technique.

Scientists from around the world are taking advantage of the new research tool provided by a team of scientists who managed to produce a library of stem cells, which are called iPS cells and are made using a technique pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan. The WiCell Research Institute of Madison, which hosted the summit, houses the National Stem Cell Bank that contains 21 embryonic stem cell lines. The discovery enables researchers to model thousands of conditions using classical cell culture techniques, said investigator George Daley.

The new discovery allows researchers to study the disease in progress in a Petri dish. By comparing diseased cells to healthy cells in a Petri dish, scientists hope to understand what causes the disease and to test new drugs.

Now scientists can take samples from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, as an example, and the technique will help them achieve a precise view of the disease.

The process poses “no moral problem” because it doesn’t involve destruction of an embryo, compared with the technique which uses embryonic stem cells. But the result is similar: ordinary skin cells are now being genetically reprogrammed to mimic embryonic stem cells.

Stem cell researcher Jamie Thomson of UW Madison told the summit crowd that the breakthroughs are encouraging but much more work on various planes needs to be done. “We need to roll up our sleeves and do a great deal of work here and it's not going to happen overnight,” said Thomson. He estimated that it takes 15 years for drug research to lead to therapies. He said the new reprogrammed cells will be most beneficial in improving understanding of disease development and providing targets for drug testing.