A new stem cell engineering technique may eventually rival Banting's and Best's achievements in 1921

Currently stem cell harvesting has focused on primarily two techniques.  1) harvesting from aborted fetuses or 2) stem cell engineering of mature or adult stem cells utilizing viruses. But, both have their drawbacks. The former procedure comes with the well known ethical dilemma which has consumed and slowed the advancement of stem cell research and the latter can injure existing cells including the potential for creating cancer. But, a new technique utilizing a jumping gene may someday revolutionize the way stem cells are harvested.

What is startling is that Dr. Andras Nagy and his colleagues from the the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital in collaboration with Keisuke Kaji from the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine used neither procedure and were able to reprogram human skin cells to an embryonic state utilizing a discovery that was first reported by Japanese and American researchers in 2007. Their recent publication in the Journal Nature indicates that the team was able to reprogram skin cells to an embryonic-like state by using a jumping gene, also known as mobile DNA or a transposon.

As reported in the Globe and Mail, "Dr. Nagy and his colleagues inserted the four reprogramming genes into a jumping gene from a moth. Then they put the jumping gene and its cargo into a skin cell. The jumping gene cut and pasted the stem cell genes into a chromosome in the skin cell. The scientists were then able to coax the skin cell back to its embryonic state, giving it the superhero-like ability to turn into many types of cells.

In many cases, they found that the jumping gene then took a second leap to another chromosome. But 60 per cent of the time, the second cut-and-paste operation wasn't successful. This meant the four genes were not reinserted back into the genome of the skin cell, and disappeared, as did the jumping gene. Dr Nagy further announced "We hope these stem cells will form the basis for treatment of many diseases and conditions that are currently considered incurable".

Maybe there is more to Canada than moose, Mounties, Leonard Cohen and their single payer system, eh!