Human Skin Cells Altered to Be Pluripotent

Scientists in Wisconsin and Japan reported that they have reprogrammed human skin cells to function like embryonic stem cells, potentially sidestepping the controversy that has politicized the research for nearly a decade.

People for and against stem cell research praised the findings; opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue that it ends the debate and supporters of the research--along with the scientists involved in the studies--say that the findings underscore the need for more research on all forms of stem cells.

“We are still a long way from finding cures or therapies from stem cells and we don't know what processes will be effective,” according to Shinya Yamanaka, who led the study conducted at Kyoto University, Japan, which was released Nov. 20 by the journal Cell.

Yamanaka, who also is a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD), a nonprofit biomedical research center associated with University of California, San Francisco, said the next steps will be to understand how these cells can be differentiated into other types of cells and ultimately how they can be used to...