Skin cells transformed without embryos

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have transformed ordinary human skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells -- but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.

Their breakthroughs, reported on Tuesday, could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human eggs or embryos.

"We can now envisage a time when a simple approach can be used to produce stem cells that are able to form any tissue from a small sample taken from any of us," said Ian Wilmut of the University of Edinburgh, who helped clone the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, in 1997.

The White House immediately welcomed the development, given President George W. Bush's long opposition to embryo research, even as scientists said the finding should not be the end of such research.

Two separate teams of researchers achieved the same goal, which doctors hope someday will lead to tailored medical treatments and a new approach called regenerative medicine, in which damaged organs can be re-programmed to repair themselves.

The researchers agree it will be years before the technique could be used to treat people. More immediately, they say it can be used to study diseases and to screen drugs.

James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and colleagues reported their finding in the journal Science. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues reported theirs in the journal Cell.

The new cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells and look and act like embryonic stem cells -- the master cells that give rise to every cell and tissue in the body.