Joint Gladstone-UCSF study highlights novel reprogramming
method; offers new hope for treating liver failure
The power of regenerative medicine now allows scientists to
transform skin cells into cells that closely resemble heart cells, pancreas
cells and even neurons. However, a method to generate cells that are fully
mature—a crucial prerequisite for life-saving therapies—has proven far more
difficult. But now, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the University
of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have made an important breakthrough: they
have discovered a way to transform skin cells into mature, fully functioning liver
cells that flourish on their own, even after being transplanted into laboratory
animals modified to mimic liver failure.