Stem Cell Researcher Speaks of Discoveries
October 21, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - Stem cell researcher Dr. Shinya Yamanaka spoke at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco on October 2.
Yamanaka reported in the August 2006 issue of the journal Cell a new method for reprogramming skin cells from mice into embryonic-like cells that can differentiate into other types of cells. He also published a new study in Nature, improving on his original research demonstrating that the reprogrammed cells generated from the adult-termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) had all the properties of embryonic stem cells, including the ability to generate a mouse entirely derived from the reprogrammed adult cells.
“If this approach works in human cells, it opens the door to finally generating patient-specific stem cells for therapeutic applications and discovery of disease mechanisms,” said Dr. Deepak Srivastava, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease. “This represents a key hurdle in the stem cell field, and Shinya’s discovery may obviate many of the ethical concerns surrounding human embryonic stem cell research.”
A professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, Yamanaka is also the L.K. Whittier Foundation Investigator in Stem Cell Biology.
The Gladstone Institute is an independent, non-profit biomedical research organization that researches causes and prevention of deadly diseases.
Photo Credit: Universal Media
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