Scientists take key step in stem cell therapy

Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

October 6, 2011 ET

For the first time, sci­entists have used cloning techniques — in­serting ge­net­ic ma­te­rial from adult cells into unfertilized human eggs — to cre­ate embryon­ic stem cells.

The advance, reported Wednesday in the journal Na­ture, moves sci­entists one step clos­er to their goal of devel­op­ing thera­pies to treat mal­adies including dia­betes, Alzheimer's disease and Parkin­son's disease, research­ers said.

In the world of stem cell research, the achieve­ment marks an important step, but only a step.

The stem cells cre­ated by the team at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Lab­oratory in New York City and collab­orators at Columbia                     

Uni­versity and UC San Diego were ge­net­ically abnormal, con­tain­ing a mix­ture of DNA from the adult skin cells that were cloned and from the egg used in the procedure. That's because the team bypassed a step in the process in which ge­net­ic ma­te­rial from the egg is re­moved.

They did so because, like oth­ers in the past, they were not able to get an embryo to devel­op to a suf­ficiently advanced stage if they re­moved the ge­net­ic ma­te­rial from the egg.

That hur­dle must be overcome if anyone wants to use cloning technology to cre­ate stem cells suit­able for thera­peutic use, said Dieter Egli, a se­nior research fel­low at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Lab­oratory, who led the study along with se­nior research fel­low Scott Noggle.

Still, the research shows that somat­ic cell                   

nucle­ar transfer, as the cloning procedure is technically called, could one day help cre­ate stem cell thera­pies tai­lored to pre­vent im­mun      

e rejection, said Dr. Robert Lanza, an embryon­ic stem cell research­er at Advanced Cell Technology in Worces­ter, Mass.