skin cells transformed directly into nerve cells

I wasn't sure which forum this should be under, excuse me if I picked the wrong one. *smiles*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have transformed ordinary mouse skin cells directly into neurons, bypassing the need for stem cells or even stemlike cells and greatly speeding up the field of regenerative medicine.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers said they used just three genes to transform ordinary mouse skin cells directly into nerve cells called neurons. They are calling the new cells "induced neuronal cells".

Absolutely fascinating. It seems that science is now belting out finding after finding. We seem to be on a major societal cusp regarding science and medicine.

I would of never of thought that the end to the stem cell debate would be to just skip stem cells altogether.

skin cells transformed

[edit on 27-1-2010 by nixie_nox]

Nice; I wonder if this type of research began before the regulations on stem cell research were relaxed.

Either way, this jives with a rule of thumb I've had since forever: "there is always at least two ways to do anything"

It just happens that the second way in this case could be quite cheap and straightforward.

nice find...hopefully this will shut the luddies up and we can go on investing in progress once again.

One thing I never could understand was why not simply take the fetus of say a pig, infuse it with human DNA, and then once that takes ahold, use that for the stem cells...not sure if that would shut them up mind you, but then again, they find cloning a abomination anyhow...and why not use abominations for research.

anyhow, I guess this settles that whole debate...whew...smooth sailing between science and religion from here on out (sarcasm btw.)

Now we just need 8 years of pharmacological and surgical research so the cells will graft to the spinal chord without complication. And bingo! the quadraplegics can throw their own wheelchairs away.