Complexity Digest 2008.36 - 08

4-Sept-2008

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Developmental Biology: Neuron Research Leaps Ahead, Science Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Technologies that reprogram adult dermal cells into motor neurons should advance our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. (...)

Dimos et al. not only demonstrate that human neural cells--in particular, disease-related neural cells--can be generated from induced pluripotent stem cells, but also that the method can be successfully applied to fibroblasts derived from elderly patients, a key issue for age-dependent disorders (like most of the neurodegenerative diseases). Moreover, the study shows the feasibility of producing large numbers of induced pluripotent stem cells from a small skin biopsy.