Skin Cells Reprogrammed as Heart Cells Beat in a Dish

Below is a video of skin cells that have been turned into heart tissue beating in a dish.

The tissue isn't ready for transplantation, but it's a moving proof-of-principle for induced pluripotency, which genetically reprograms adult cells into a near-embryonic state, capable of becoming almost any cell type.

In the last few years, induced pluripotency has been hailed as an uncontroversial alternative to embryonic stem cells, production of which requires the destruction of embryos.

However, reprogrammed cells aren't yet safe enough for clinical use — the mutations involved leave cells prone to forming tumors — but scientists are trying to make the mutations safer.



Original article here.