Researchers race to strip stem cells of cancer risk

[babylonsister]

Researchers race to strip stem cells of cancer risk

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY


The race to craft stem cells that have the virtues, but not the notoriety, of their embryonic brethren faces its final hurdle: becoming safe enough to help patients.

Researchers have unveiled a flurry of advances in recent months in the development of "induced pluripotent" stem cells. "The induced pluripotent stem cell field is probably one of the most fast-moving areas in all of biology," says researcher Leonard Zon of Children's Hospital in Boston.

Grown from adult skin, these cells are genetically transformed to have the same unspecialized function that makes embryonic cells so important. Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can grow into blood, brain, bone and every type of tissue, raising researchers' hopes of a "regenerative medicine" era in which physicians could grow organs for transplant candidates or tissue to treat spinal injuries.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration approved an experimental paralysis regimen that is the first clinical trial of an embryonic stem cell treatment. But the cells have been surrounded by controversy for the past decade because they are collected by destroying an early-stage human embryo, a reality that in 2001 led President Bush to limit federal research spending. President Obama reversed that decision in March.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-01-induced-stem-cell_N.htm