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Teaching Old Cells New Tricks

Nov 20, 2007

Edinburgh University's Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep, is giving up his old cloning methods for a new one developed by Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, reports the BBC. Yamanaka's method genetically modifies adult cells, such as skin cells, to make them more like stem cells. "The work which was described from Japan of using a technique to change cells from a patient directly into stem cells without making an embryo has got so much more potential," Wilmut said to the BBC.

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