Human Stem Cells Turned Into Neurons
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Stem cells taken from human embryos were coaxed into becoming motor neurons, researchers reported Sunday.
Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, Su-Chun Zhang and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin said they delivered a carefully timed cocktail of proteins to the cells to direct their development.
“You need to teach the [cells] to change step by step, where each step has different conditions and a strict window of time,” Zhang said.
