By B.D. Colen
Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers and scientists at Whitehead Institute and Japan's Kyoto University have independently taken major steps toward discovering ways to reprogram cells in order to direct their development - a key goal in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.
Additionally, the group led by Kevin Eggan, an HSCI principal faculty member - whose study is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the journal Nature - has disproved a long-held view of developmental biologists by demonstrating in mice that it is possible to use previously fertilized ova to produce disease-specific stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning.
