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Health

Editorial: What shall we do with cells today?

3 April 2007

THE notion of modifying living cells in the lab and using them therapeutically is still relatively new, yet the range of potential applications is growing by the day.

Stocks of donated blood can run short, especially those of rarer blood types, so wouldn’t it be great if we could make all donations safe for everyone? Well, researchers can now do this by scrubbing the antigens that define blood type from the surface of blood cells. Clinical trials are pending (see “Don’t know your blood group? Doesn’t matter”).

One long-standing idea for helping people with diabetes control their blood sugar…

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