Word: celles
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Everything about Shinya Yamanaka's discovery was right-except for the timing. The 44-year-old Kyoto University stem-cell researcher had found a way to genetically reprogram an ordinary mouse skin cell to revert to the virtual equivalent of its embryonic state, in which it has the potential to grow into any kind of tissue. The finding was a promising first step toward the creation of stem-cell lines for near-miraculous medical treatments-and because Yamanaka did not use human embryos, his technique offered researchers everywhere a way to sidestep the ethical controversies that have dogged the field...
...Vindication came on June 7, when the rest of the scientific world caught up with Yamanaka. Two separate teams of stem-cell researchers affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles published papers essentially confirming and refining Yamanaka's findings, while his own team released a new study that improved on his original research. The collective work-which one cloning pioneer compared to turning lead into gold-raises the possibility that scientists might one day be able to reprogram a patient's own adult cells to transform into human embryonic stem cells...
...years, many stem-cell researchers sought to accomplish that through nuclear transfer-transplanting an adult cell's nucleus into an egg that had been emptied of its own genetic material. This process is expensive and difficult, and so far no one has been able to pull it off in humans. Yamanaka never tried. Starting with a tiny team in 1999 at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology-he moved to Kyoto in 2004-Yamanaka focused on finding the genes that could persuade an adult cell to regress on its own to an embryonic state, without the messy mechanics...
...maverick streak comes naturally to the driven Yamanaka. Many Japanese scientists, even the best ones, can seem detached and dreamy. Though he has only worked in academia, Yamanaka by contrast has the no-nonsense air of the hybrid researcher/entrepreneur, a type that plays a big role in American stem-cell science. "He used to be an orthopedic surgeon, so he has a good sense in connecting his research to a practical application," says Yoshiki Sasai, a stem-cell scientist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe. "He's like a venture [capitalist]. He couldn't do big-scale...
...with Bush, tend to be largely symbolic and often formal affairs, compared with the ongoing substantive talks and collaboration among the full-time diplomats. The meeting itself was an opportunity for Bush to remind America's Catholic voters of their "shared values" with the Pope: from opposition to stem-cell research to anti-poverty efforts in Africa. After meeting the Pope, Bush sat down with the Catholic aid group Communita di Sant'Egidio, which has been among the best unofficial arms of Vatican diplomacy, and encompasses the idea of faith-based initiatives so dear to the American President...