ShareIn a truly remarkable discovery, a team of Harvard biologists have used a virus to introduce three molecules that switch on and off particular genes in an adult cell in the pancreas of a living mouse, transforming it from an adult exocrine cell (which produces digestive enzymes but not insulin) into a cell that mimics the activity of an adult beta cell (which produces insulin).
The implications are staggering. Instead of diabetics taking insulin shots their cells could be reprogrammed to actually create insulin, curing their diabetic condition. Diseased or badly functioning tissues could potentially be changed into healthier tissue.
The advance is particularly notable because it allows instructing one type of specialized cell to act like another type of specialized cell. It doesn’t require the use of stem cells (immature cells that can develop into specialized cells). However, embryonic stem cell research continues to expand human understanding of cellular development significantly, and likely will be lead to other forms of therapies.
For more, see the: Washington Post, Financial Times, Bloomberg, NY Times, Nature, & Google News.
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