Stem Cells No Longer Needed?

Embryonic Stem Cell Research has long been one of my hot button issues. Despite all the promises its supporters that the cures are worth the ethical implications, they’ve never been able to produce any credible evidence that this approach is the best way to go. In fact, research has shown that non-embryonic stem cell sources actually deliver on the promise of their child-destroying variant, having delivered over 70+ cures currently in testing, with more being discovered all the time. This dilemma-free source for stem cells works by “reprogramming” somatic, or body, cells (e.g., adult skin cells) to act like embryonic stem cells. As amazing (and effective) as the discovery of the technique was, researchers may have found a way to achieve the same goals without even requiring stem cells at all!

A team at Harvard has succeeded in directly reprogramming one type of adult cell into another, without even the need for the intermediary step of reprogramming to a pseudo-embryonic state and only then differentiating to a new developed cell type. In other words, not only do they not need embryos, they don’t even need stem cells at all; they can just turn one type of cell into another directly. What’s more, they’ve done this inside a living animal (a mouse), and not just in a laboratory dish.

Yuval Levin has more on this amazing discovery.  Could this signal the end of embryo-destroying research and the accompanying, non-sensical cry for government funding?  We can only hope.