Why Does the Wilbur Theatre Suck? Better Rock Shows in 5 Steps
Photo of the Day, November 24, 2009: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Photo of the Day, November 25, 2009: Boston as seen from the harbor
Cheap Eats: Burtons Grill
Sports Redux: Nobody Puts Bergey In the Corner
It may have been this Bostonist’s 24th birthday yesterday (seriously!), but we’re the ones doling out the presents here in this week’s edition of Beaker Hill. Today, we’ll give you everything you ever wanted to know about stem cells, as the Harvard Stem Cell Institute is back at it again. 
As mentioned in our first two editions of Beaker Hill, the HSCI specializes in producing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), meaning that they are more or less identical to cells derived from embryos, but were created instead from a patient’s own tissue. The initial discovery of this technique by a scientist in Japan was praised even by those vehemently opposed to stem cell research, as it sidesteps the ethical issues they have with such research. However, there was one “minor” detail raining on the iPS parade: the transformation process involved flipping some genetic switches inside the cells by using cancer-causing retroviruses. Unless a new method could be developed, iPS would never be used in human treatment. (Oops!)
Or will it? The answer after the jump...
Until last week, that is. In a paper published online by the journal Science, HSCI researchers led by Konrad Hochedlinger announced the successful production of induced pluripotent stem cells via a new noncancerous method. (Doesn’t that sound like a warped commercial or product label? Stem Cells: Now Cancer-Free!) Instead of the nasty retroviruses, which integrate themselves into the human genome for good, like your broke friend who always crashes on the couch, the new process uses adenoviruses, which deposit their payload and then kindly leave when they’re told.
The HSCI team also tested their cells in mice to see if they actually did what they were supposed to do—integrate themselves into various working tissues, and not give the mice cancer. Surprise! They worked! The only hurdle left is making the process more efficient (you can extend that criticism to virtually everything we cover in this column). For the published paper, HSCI produced one viable line of iPS cells from, uh…1 million cells tested. So clearly there are still a few bugs, but the ethical and clinical barriers to moving this into treatment of human diseases, like Parkinson’s and sickle cell anemia, among others, are being torn down. Unlike turning 24, this is a real reason to celebrate.
Birthday cake image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, as we didn't have any cake yesterday.
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