Word: reprogramming
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...when Ian Wilmut was able to coax an aging mammary cell to become an entirely new sheep by giving it a home in a hollowed-out egg. And since every scientific experiment just begets more experiments, Dolly's birth got researchers to wondering: If the egg can reprogram a cell, is it possible to tease out exactly what age-reversing factors the oocyte uses, and mix up a Fountain of Youth cocktail that would work on any cell without the need...
Everything about Shinya Yamanaka's discovery was right-except for the timing. The 44-year-old Kyoto University stem-cell researcher had found a way to genetically reprogram an ordinary mouse skin cell to revert to the virtual equivalent of its embryonic state, in which it has the potential to grow into any kind of tissue. The finding was a promising first step toward the creation of stem-cell lines for near-miraculous medical treatments-and because Yamanaka did not use human embryos, his technique offered researchers everywhere a way to sidestep the ethical controversies that have dogged the field...
...Angeles published papers essentially confirming and refining Yamanaka's findings, while his own team released a new study that improved on his original research. The collective work-which one cloning pioneer compared to turning lead into gold-raises the possibility that scientists might one day be able to reprogram a patient's own adult cells to transform into human embryonic stem cells and then into heart, nerve or any other kind of tissue. That could give doctors the ability to repair or replace cells destroyed by disease or injury, without fear of immune-system rejection. Experts were quick to warn...
...expected those opportunities to come so soon. Trying to discover the right combination of genes that would reprogram adult cells was a scientific fishing expedition in a deep ocean. In early 2004 Yamanaka had worked up a list of 24 possible genes he thought were instrumental in cell programming, and was ready to begin testing them. There was no guarantee any of the 24 suspects were the right ones, and when Yamanaka offered the experiment to one of his students, the researcher turned him down. "We knew the chance that the correct answer was in those 24 factors was very...
...that Yamanaka has helped show science the path, the race is on to discover the researcher's holy grail: a way to reprogram adult cells in human beings. The Japanese pioneer finds himself at a disadvantage. Scientists in the U.S. and Europe can draw on deeper reserves of money and talent. U.S. states such as California and Massachusetts are spending billions of dollars on stem-cell research, hoping to lay the groundwork for development of new medical industries. In contrast, Yamanaka's lab at Kyoto is relatively basic, and the Japanese government has only recently begun channeling real funding into...