"Mind-boggling" Stanford research turns human blood cells into functional neurons

[Judi Lynn]

Rich Haridy
13 minutes ago

In breakthrough new research described as "somewhat mind-boggling," a team at Stanford University has developed a technique than can transform human immune cells found in a regular blood sample into functional neurons in just three weeks.

The research follows on from several years of work going back to 2010 when the team first developed this technique showing mouse skin cells could be directly transformed into mouse neurons without the cells entering a state called pluripotency. Previously it was thought that to reprogram a human cell it would need to first be transformed into what is called an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC).

After initially demonstrating that this time-consuming step could be skipped in mouse models, the team then showed the process could be replicated using human skin cells in 2011. But even then, the process of transforming skin cells into neurons was not as efficient or easy as one would hope.

"Generating induced pluripotent stem cells from large numbers of patients is expensive and laborious," says Marius Wernig, senior author on the new study. "Moreover, obtaining skin cells involves an invasive and painful procedure. The prospect of generating iPS cells from hundreds of patients is daunting and would require automation of the complex reprogramming process."

More:
https://newatlas.com/blood-cells-transformed-neurons-stanford/54948/

[Duppers]

1. K & R

"...they will allow scientists to mimic certain brain diseases in a laboratory context, rapidly accelerating our understanding of some complex neurological disorders."