Stem-Cell-Like-Cells Made Using Only Blood?

Adair writes "Newscientist.com is reporting that a UK biotech firm, TriStem has developed a technique to 'turn ordinary blood into cells capable of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues.' Their method transforms anyone's white blood cells into 'stem-cell-like-cells' which can then be coaxed into one of a myriad of healthy cells such as heart, nerve, or brain. Having made these claims for years, TriStem has recently provided proof to their claims, which some scientists who witnessed called 'stunning."' They have some more proving to do, but if the initial results pan out, the applications could be fantastic -- and without the stigma of traditional stem-cell research."

Comments

Wow

[tsa]

If this is true these guys can make insane amounts of money. They patented their technique in 1996 in the UK and in 2000 in the US so we are left with a monopoly. Hopefully they won't exploit it too much.

Re:Wow

[Jesrad]

It cannot be kept a trade secret if it is hard to believe technology. There's the same problem with "free energy" devices and antigravity devices, they require repeated reproduced experiments to be taken seriously, which can't happen if they won't tell you how to do it.

Re:Used for cobra bite necrosis?

[Dreadlord]

TriStem claims in the article that the technique can be used to regenerate many kinds of cells, including smooth muscle cells, on the other hand, I wonder if regenerating cells is all what the body needs to recover lost parts, because randomly generating cells isn't going to recreate the same organ after all, so there should be another technique to control how cells are regenerated.

Next step in longevity treatments?

[Smidge204]

Since we have some people looking into how sea urchins are practically immortal, I'm curious if there will be some way to mix and cross-reference the two veins of research to come up with a longevity treatment...

=Smidge=