Scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells -- without using embryos or eggs.
Directed by scientists Kathrin Plath and William Lowry, the UCLA researchers used genetic alteration to turn back the clock on human skin cells and create cells that are nearly identical to human embryonic stem cells. They used four regulator genes to create the cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). The reprogrammed cells were not just functionally identical to ...