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Organs on demand, no embryo needed 07 October 2006 Bruce Goldman Andy Coghlan Magazine issue 2572 Could the latest way to create personalised stem cells finally offer a way around ethical objections? IT OFFERS the possibility of a personalised supply of all kinds of tissue types, without cloning, donated eggs or the destruction of embryos. If the latest breakthrough in stem cell technology in mice is repeated in humans - and New Scientist has learned that experiments on human cells are now under way - it could demolish the ethical objections that have dogged the field. Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi of Kyoto University in Japan have produced what are effectively embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mouse skin cells by exposing them to four messenger chemicals that are found in embryonic but not adult cells. The researchers also derived ESCs from differentiated cells in mouse embryos, but the work with skin cells is most significant because it overcomes ethical objections relating to embryos. A personalised, ethically watertight treatment would represent the long dreamed-of pinnacle of stem cell research. Replacement tissues generated this ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn