Breakthrough in cell reprogramming
A group of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made such a significant leap forward in reprogramming human adult cells that HSCI co-director Douglas Melton said the institute will immediately begin using the new method to make patient- and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells. “This work by Derrick Rossi and his colleagues solves one of the major challenges we face in trying to use a patient’s own cells to treat their disease,” said Melton, who is also co-chair of Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. “I predict that this technique will immediately become the preferred method to make iPS cells from patients, and, indeed, at the HSCI we are turning our entire iPS core to using this method,” said Melton, who did not participate in the work. The findings were published online by the journal Cell Stem Cell. Rossi’s group, based at the Immune Disease Institute,...