Angsuman Chakraborty 11 Oct 2008 06:03 am

Moreover it will also put an end to a “Bush” controversy that is linked with embryonic stem cells .

This new invention is supposed to be a ground breaking safest technique as till now scientists were using retroviruses, to transform ordinary skin cells into iPS cells, which look and act like embryonic stem cells. These retroviruses, are supposed to be a dangerous genes, as research shows that these integrate their own genetic material into the cells they infect causing tumors and other side effects.

Researchers of Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues, the master mind behind this new method wanted to develop a safe technique which will help in developing embryonic stem cells . And so, keeping this aim in mind they tried different methods on mice and eventually found that looping three genes into one plasmid and the fourth into another, helps the mouse embryonic cells to revert to a stem-like state and thus act as an embryonic stem cells.

New research done by the Japanese scientists reveals about a new and safest technique which helps in transforming ordinary cells into embryonic-like stem cells called iPS cells.

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In November Japanese researchers showed that adult human and mouse skin cells could be reprogrammed into stem cells similar to embryonic stem cells, which can be transformed into any type of cell. These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), has the potential to be a major step forward in using stem cells to cure a variety of diseases.

2007's Nobel laureate for medicine renowned Italian-American scientist Mario Capecchi invented a novel technique to find out hidden stem cell within the pancreas. A research article on this work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Accademy of Sciences (PNAS).

Japanese researchers has succeeded in engineering stem cell taken from tooth germ to quickly develop into liver or bone tissues, local reports said. A joint team of scientists from Osaka University and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology’s Research Institute for Cell Engineering succeeded in repairing damaged liver and bones in rats using stem cell taken from wisdom tooth germ, the newspaper Daily Yomiuri reported.

Researchers in London's Hammersmith Hospital have begun a pioneering trial using patients' own stem cells to treat their chronic liver disease. They are attempting to reverse cirrhosis of the liver by harnessing and enhancing the body's own repair mechanism.

With an aim to find an immediate cure for diseases like autism and cystic fibrosis, Canadian and Japanese stem cell researchers are joining their forces together in a bid to accelerate the work on drug therapy development. This news was revealed on 16th of October, 2008 by The University of Toronto and Japan's Kyoto University informing that, Dr.

Invitrogen's, claimed today that it's new technology Dynabeads® SSEA-4, help enable safer stem cell therapies. Scientists from Invitrogen, a division of Life Technologies and the Buck Institute for Age Research, located in Novato, Calif., collaborated in developing this innovative solution.

Ion channels discovered in human embryonic stem cells will make the cells safer for clinical use announced University of Hong Kong. Embryonic stem cell is the only type of human stem cells capable of becoming all human cell types, including highly specialized cells such as brain and heart cells.

A new control over embryonic stem cells behavior have been invented, by the researchers from The Forsyth Institute. The researchers claim that with this discovery they will be able to disrupt the natural bioelectrical mechanism of the embryonic cells which triggers cancer-like response.