From stem cells to IPS cells. A passionate journey

Abstract

There is no doubt that this scientific finding could have potential clinical use, and as such it has been met with great hope, not only by medical science but also by the general public. In addition to the unquestionable scientific interest in this finding is the fact that obtaining the aforementioned cells, which are similar to embryonic cells, does not require the destruction of human embryos, thus avoiding the serious ethical difficulty that the use of embryonic stem cells entails; it is well known that the human embryos from which they originate must be created and destroyed to obtain them. This triple aspect – scientific interest, possible clinical usefulness and ethical goodness – has meant that as previously mentioned, the work by the Japanese and American researchers has been deserving of significant media attention. However, the current study, conducted using human skin cells, has had its experimental prologue with animals and even its theoretical formulation stage