Mimicking human disease; Stem Cells

James ­Thomson's, director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute at the University of Wisconsin, first isolated human embryonic stem cells in 1998. Isolating these cells, which are capable of maturing into any other type of cell, marked a landmark in biology. Although it was a landmark, it caused much controversy because the process destroys a human embryo. Then, in 2008 another milestone was reached. Thomson and Junying Yu developed a way to make stem cells from adult cells by adding four genes that are normally active only in embryos. iPS cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells may contain the function of replacing damaged or diseased tissue. Thomson thinks their most important contribution will be to provide an unprecedented window on human development and disease. Also, iPS cells may revolutionize toxicity testing for drugs. If their studies succeed, researchers hope to use iPS cells to study other disorders and develop drugs to treat them. These disorders include ALS, Down syndrome, spinal muscular atrophy and more. iPS cells also have the ability to become the go-to source of stem cells for modeling diseases more realistically, testing drugs and designing future therapies derived from cell lines matched to a patient’s immune system. Recently, Thomson and his team reached a milestone, they created iPS cells without using c-myc, a gene that promotes cancer. Of 26 mice in Yamanaka’s study derived from iPS cells, none died of cancer after 100 days, compared with six of 37 generated with c-myc.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=potent-alternative
http://technologyreview.com/energy/25082/