< Back to front page Text size – +

Whitehead team devises more efficient way of making stem cells

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Gideon Gil July 1, 2008 04:57 PM

Facebook
E-mail

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Researchers at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge have developed a more efficient technique to reprogram adult cells into an embryonic-stem-cell-like state.

The method, described in a paper published online today in the journal Nature Biotechnology, allows researchers to use a drug to induce large numbers of different kinds of cells to revert to act like embryonic stem cells, capable of developing into nerves, bones, blood, or other kinds of cells.

Instead of the inefficient and unpredictable process of infecting cells with viruses to reprogram them, scientists can cull cells from specially-bred mice and treat them with a drug to induce the change.

That step forward should allow scientists to study how the reprogramming process works. It could also facilitate research aimed at finding a substitute for the cancer-causing viruses currently used to reprogram cells, overcoming a significant safety barrier to using such cells as a potential therapy.

The reprogramming process was riddled with "a lot of vagaries; it was unclear how we can easily study the mechanism," said Rudolf Jaenisch, an author of the study and a member of the Whitehead Institute. "The idea of this paper was to try to eliminate those vagaries and make a system reproducible."

Facebook
E-mail

« Back to front page

About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

Daily Dose | More Health&Wellness

health answers

Long-term health consequences to being born prematurely? It's estimated that each year nearly 500,000 babies in the United States are born prematurely, or before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Submit question | More answers