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Chemical Treatment Transforms Skin Cells Into Neurons

Posted by samzenpus on from the from-one-thing-to-another dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Two teams of researchers have independently succeeded in turning skin cells into neurons using a chemical cocktail. One group used human cells from healthy individuals and Alzheimer's patients, and the other used cells from mice. Sciencemag reports: "Molecular and cell biologists say the technique could become an important player in personalized medicine, specifically in using a patient's own cells to develop therapies for their disease or even to provide a source of transplantable cells for treatment."

3 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. skin has been used for cartilage replacement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oskar Koneczny in Germany had done cartilage replacement for years in Germany using the patients own skin. His book "Die Koriumplastik in der Gelenk-und Extremitatenchirurgie" describes the procedure in some detail. Unfortunately, no one in this country seems to have picked up on this.

  2. Re:Apply to penis by Aaden42 · · Score: 2

    You jest, but it would be nice if the folks at Foregen (foregen.org) started examining techniques like this.

  3. Excellent by puddingebola · · Score: 2

    Now I will be able to turn my entire epidermis into neurons increasing my thought capacity by a factor of 12. However, I may start to hallucinate when I put on sunscreen.