Word: ipse
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Harvard Medical School professor Konrad A. Hochedlinger and his colleagues reported last week on the Web site of the journal Science that they have created mouse induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells without permanently altering the genetic makeup of the cells.
The iPS technique allows scientists to genetically manipulate a patient’s cells—typically skin cells or blood cells—and reprogram them into a pluripotent state. Like embryonic stem cells, these iPS cells are then capable of morphing into any type of body tissue.
Unlike retroviruses, which scientists have been using to create iPS cells, these viruses effectively disappear after a few cell divisions and do not integrate into the cells’ DNA. The effect of this is that adenoviruses are free from the chief adverse effect of genetic manipulation, which can turn...
The next step, according to lead author Matthias Stadtfeld, is to increase the efficiency of creating iPS mouse cells and then try to reproduce the work in human cells.
Currently, the number of iPS cells produced using retroviruses is significantly higher than that from the harmless adenoviruses. Stadtfeld, who is a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard-affiliated Mass. General Hospital, estimated that using the more-dangerous retroviruses is 10 to 100 times more efficient than the new adenovirus...