NOVEMBER was an astonishing month for embryonic stem cell research. First, Shoukhrat Mitalipov at the Oregon National Primate Research Center reported producing cloned embryonic stem cells from a rhesus macaque monkey – the first from an adult primate. The decade-long dream of using cloned human stem cells to cure intractable diseases seemed on the verge of being fulfilled.
Just a week later, two research teams stunned the world by announcing they had generated genetically matched human pluripotent stem cells – which seem to be as versatile as embryonic stem cells – without cloning. Using viruses to introduce new genes into human skin cells, …
