Another Team Reverts Skin Cells!

According to Reuters, another team of researchers has successfully turned skin cells into embryonic like cells. This time it’s Dr. George Daley of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston and his colleagues:

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A third team of researchers has found a way to convert an ordinary skin cell into valued embryonic-like stem cells, with the potential to grow batches of cells that can be directed to form any kind of tissue.

Their study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature, shows the approach is not a rare fluke but in fact something that might make its way into everyday use.

Scientists hope they are starting an age of regenerative medicine, in which people can get tailor-made treatments for injuries, diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes, and in which scientists can study disease far better than before.

Of course the story wouldn’t be complete without the researcher’s insistence that embryonic stem cell research must still go forward, but it’s good news, nonetheless.

A Christmas Stem Cell Miracle

Several months ago I mentioned six year old Rylea Bartlett, blind from birth, who was treated with umbilical cord stem cells in China and now has very limited vision. This year young Rylea had a Christmas like no other:

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Rylea Barlett has had Christmas trees in her home before. But this year is different.

Rylea, a totally blind child whose vision was restored by a stem-cell transplant, can do more than feel her tree now. She can see it.

“She never paid any attention to the trees we have had before,” said her mother, Dawn Barlett. “Now, when she comes home from school, she stands in front of the tree for a couple of hours every night.

“She touches the tree, and is fascinated by the lights and ornaments.”

Her tree has been rigged to turn slowly. Different ornaments and sparkling lights pass by her as the tree turns. She touches the ornaments and describes her favorites.

“This one is a ginger-bread man,” Rylea said last week as she stood close to the tree. “This one is a star. This is one with someone’s picture in it. I like this one of the baby in the moon.”

Find out more about this sweet little girl on her website, No More Darkness. Shamefully her story has progressed no further than the local media in Joplin MO.