Lots of tantrums from American scientists and from disease-bearing Americans have accompanied bans on the use of embyronic stem cells. A team at Salk Institute has announced their ability to make such cells from a human hair!

JimB

"Stem Cell Breakthrough: Mass-Production Of 'Embryonic' Stem Cells From A Human Hair"

"ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2008) — The first reports of the successful reprogramming of adult human cells back into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which by all appearances looked and acted like embryonic stem cells, created a media stir. But the process was woefully inefficient: Only one out of 10,000 cells could be persuaded to turn back the clock.

"Now, a team of researchers led by Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, succeeded in boosting the reprogramming efficiency more than 100-fold, while cutting the time it takes in half. In fact, they repeatedly generated iPS cells from the tiny number of keratinocytes attached to a single hair plucked from a human scalp.

"Their method, published ahead of print in the Oct. 17, 2008 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, not only provides a practical and simple alternative for the generation of patient- and disease-specific stem cells,..."

More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1017164917.htm