"We can take a skin sample, make stem cells from it and then direct these stem cells to grow into brain cells. Essentially, we are turning a person's skin cells into brain. We are making cells that were previously inaccessible. And we could do that in future for the liver, the heart and other organs on which it is very difficult to carry out biopsies."
--- This from Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, director of the Roslin Institue at Edinburgh University, where sheep Dolly was cloned 16 years ago.
This work does not rely on using embryos at all; instead the cloning or regeneration comes from scraps of a patient's own skin.
Sounds like something from a Michael Crichton thriller? I hope so, but it's not from Crichton's, but rather from one of mine.
I won't spoil the plot of my speculative thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY, by pointing out how this work ties in with what is done in the fictional clinic in the book. But it does, and that part of the book was written way back even before Dolly saw the light of day.
The article is by Robin McKie in the Observer of January 28, 2012. Here's the link
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