Researchers Report Advances in Cell Conversion Technique

August 28, 2008 | Source: New York Times

Biologists at Harvard have converted cells from a mouse’s pancreas into the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed in diabetes, using master proteins called transcription factors that control which sets of genes are active in a cell and thus what properties the cell will possess.

The research suggests that the natural barriers between the body’s cell types may not be as immutable as supposed. This and other recent experiments raise the possibility that a patient’s healthy cells might be transformed into the type lost to a disease far more simply and cheaply than in the cumbersome proposals involving stem cells.