Functional Nerve Cells From Skin Cells
Saturday, May 24, 2014 - 14:00
in Biology & Nature
A new method of generating mature nerve cells from skin cells could greatly enhance understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, and could accelerate the development of new drugs and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. The nerve cells generated by this new method show the same functional characteristics as the mature cells found in the body, making them much better models for the study of age-related diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and for the testing of new drugs. Eventually, the technique could also be used to generate mature nerve cells for transplantation into patients with a range of neurodegenerative diseases. read more