Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research scientists have successfully treated mice with a human sickle-cell anemia disease trait in a process that begins by directly reprogramming their own cells to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of eggs.

This is the first proof-of-principle of therapeutic application in mice of directly reprogrammed “induced pluripotent stem” (IPS) cells, which recently have been derived in mice as well as humans.