25th of March 2009, Aqeel Akber - 41875359
Researchers James Thompson of the university of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in November 2007 made a breakthrough in stem cell technology by publishing methods to reprogramme adult human cells into a pluripotent state. A cell in a pluripotent state means that the cell can grow into any possible form just like an embryonic stem cell. These cells which are reprogrammed into this state are called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. In December 2007, a researcher at the Harvard Medical School in Boston named George Daley demonstrated iPS cells can be generated from a large variety of adult cells, such as hair follicles, skin cells etc; all of which are all aren’t very invasive procedures to take a sample of.
iPS has ethical advantages over embryonic stem cells as it does not require the sacrifice of a human embryo and can be used with any adult cell on the human body. However, it does have its disadvantages – with iPS it opens to the door to cloning of both living and dead people. A large door is also opened in the designer baby industry, with a few skin cells or hair follicles from any particular person (dead or alive granted the cells are in good condition) you are able to use those cells to create your baby.
With that said there are also advantages to being able to design your own baby and cloning like this. In the case of infertile couples iPS can be used to create clones of what their babies could possibly look like with just a few skin cells. iPS cells may also be used for therapeutic purposes such as repairing of damaged organs.
Resources:
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/02/post_72.html
http://www.physorg.com/news152264594.html
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7180/full/451858a.html
