Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have for years been among leaders of research into stem cells especially the kinds called ips, for induced pluripotent stem, cells. Such cells, as has been covered extensively in media around the world, behave very much like embryonic stem cells. The university put out a release on its latest this week, published in the Proceedings of the Nat’l Academy of Sciences. One of its research teams was able to regress skin cells to an ips state, and then to induce the cells to differentiate into two types of tissue essential in retinas. They got a taker in Milwaukee. This is significant but incremental news.  It’s refreshing  to see that in parts of the country, the  press has some science writers who keep their readers aware that the labs at nearby institutes are busy.

Story:

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Mark Johnson: Skin cells changed into retina tissue.  Included is a link to an impressive collection of articles and special sections on stem cells.

Grist for the Mill: U. Wisconsin-Madison Press Release ;

-CP

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Health & Medicine Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.