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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.
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