Reprogramming somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells mature is one of the top scientific advances of recent years. The generation of iPS cells specific to a patient may have applications in cellular therapy. Three years ago, researchers at the University of Tokyo (Japan) first introduced the technique of transformation of adult cells in other mouse that had the potential of embryonic, 1 thus opening a new alternative to obtaining pluripotent cells without being embryonic stem cells. Later, U.S. researchers obtained human iPS cells for the first time. (more...)

Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, PhD in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from the Universities of Bologna and Valencia, has postdoctoral at the University of Marburg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratories (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Since 1993 works in the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute in California and runs a prestigious center for work performed with the zebrafish animal model. (more...)