Snipped from AP.com.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when there was a big uproar about reprogramming skin cells into stem cells. Well, here is something quite interesting that they have done with such reprogrammed cells. In this article the scientists discuss how they have “cured” mice with sickle cell anemia — a deadly genetic disease that distorts the shape of the red blood cells, limiting the amount of oxygen that they can “carry”.

The problem with this disease as well as insulin dependent diabetes and other genetic conditions is how difficult they are to treat. When the problem is in the genes, you can’t reverse it with today’s medicine. That is why stem cell research is so important, it allows scientists to unlock that genetic code allowing them to “reprogram” the body. Now unfortunately, they are still worried about the possibility of cancer from these “reprogrammed” stem cell, and of course the ones that are the most reliable are of the embryonic variety. But, your friend King George won’t let scientists study them because of his religion, his, not yours, but his … just so we’re clear.

Here is a small portion of the article:

But without the mouse work, scientists didn’t know “whether all the recombined machinery will work or not,” explained lead researcher Tim Townes, molecular genetics chief at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “It’s the first example of actually completing the cycle and curing a disease.” …

Townes paired with prominent stem cell scientist Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., to reprogram skin from those mice into embryonic-like stem cells. They coaxed the newly engineered cells to grow into blood-producing cells. Then they replaced the sickle cell-causing gene with a healthy version and infused the new cells.

The mice started producing healthy blood, and their sickle cell symptoms vanished.

“What this paper shows for the first time is you can combine all these steps,” said Konrad Hochedlinger, a researcher at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s an important proof of principle for the usefulness of this technology to treat disease.”