14/02/22 10:26:00.07
TOKYO?A leading Japanese research institute said Friday that it was preparing to release a more-detailed description of
the method its scientists used to create stem cells after the credibility of their work was questioned.
A spokeswoman at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology said detailed procedural methods for the studies led by
Riken biologist Haruko Obokata “will be open to the public when preparations are complete.” She didn’t say how long that would take.
(略)
Scientists who weren’t involved in the Riken research said they are struggling to create stem cells using the new method,
despite closely following the procedure described in the Nature articles.
Teruhiko Wakayama of Yamanashi University in Japan, a co-author of both Nature papers, expressed hope that releasing the
protocol would help scientists attempting to reproduce the results.
“I think it’s necessary to release a protocol to calm things down,” he said. “After that, we can release an improved version
after listening to opinions from both those who were successful and unsuccessful.”
Human stem cells can turn into any type of bodily cell, potentially providing new treatments for numerous ailments, but
existing ways to create them entail the risk of cancer or can raise ethical concerns because they involve embryos.
The new stem-cell studies caused a stir because they described how the blood cells of mice could be rapidly changed into an
embryonic-like state simply by dipping them in a mild acid solution. The ease and speed of the technique promised to offer a
better route for making patient-specific tissue
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