Japan Will Fund Stem Cell Research of Human Skin, NHK Reports
By Kanoko Matsuyama
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A Japanese government agency decided to allocate funds for research to scientists who discovered how to convert human skin cells into stem cells, public broadcaster NHK reported, without citing anyone.
The decision yesterday, two weeks after the scientific finding, was made unexpectedly early for the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the NHK said. As much as several millions of dollars may be made available, NHK said.
Ordinary skin cells from the face of a 36-year-old woman and the foreskin of a newborn were turned into stem cells and may have the power to become any cell in the body, according to reports in the journals Science and Cell on Nov. 20.
U.S. and Japanese scientific teams each inserted four genes into the skin cells, switching on a process that converted them to a form equivalent to embryonic stem cells. The cells were then changed into heart, brain, muscle, fat and cartilage cells by one team using proven methods for growing tissue from embryonic cells.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 3, 2007 19:19 EST
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