Stem Cell Researchers Receive Nobel Prize

Scientists, John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, were awarded a nobel prize for their research on stem cells. Through their work, they showed that mature and already specialized adult cells may be reversed back into pluripotent stem cells that can differentiate into anything. This was accomplished by introducing the right combination of genes that kept stem cells immature into an already mature fibroblast. What resulted was the fibroblast reverting back into an immature pluripotent stem cell that could then be induced to differentiate into anything.

This article greatly interested me because of its many implications and its uses. Reversal of already mature adult cells into stem cells rather than extracting them from embryos means that there will no longer be any ethical issues raised. Also, because of this, researchers will be able to manipulate diseased cells and, by comparing them to healthy ones, gain some insight into how the disease works, possibly leading to cures. Finally, being able to readily reverse any mature cell into stem cells will greatly increase the supply of stem cells to work with, making research a lot more efficient, and possibly yielding more results.

The article can be found here.