Q&As in 2007

A technique to transform specialized cells could pave the way to create patient-specific “embryonic” stem cells, without requiring eggs or embryos.

Dolly the sheep came not from the union of sperm and egg but from the mammary cell of one sheep and the unfertilized egg of another. Her birth, more than 10 years ago showed that nuclei from specialized adult cells can be reprogrammed into all the cells of an organism.

Much of the work that had previously convinced scientists that only oocytes, and not zygotes, could be used for cloning came from very careful studies by McGrath and Solter in the 1980s^1,2. A few weeks before Kevin Eggan's paper³ was made public, Nature Reports Stem Cells tracked down Davor Solter to learn his thoughts.