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Putting stem cells to the test

Nature Medicine volume 16, pages 1354–1357 (2010)Cite this article

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To truly know whether a stem cell has the developmental flexibility to give rise to new, therapeutic tissue types, the cells must undergo a definitive test in which they are injected into mice and observed. Yet many say this measure is too slow, too expensive and too unreliable. Elie Dolgin goes in search of a replacement.

The stakes for developing a reliable test for true pluripotency are high. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested more than $500 million in human ES cell research and plunged hundreds of millions more into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Once the therapies hit the clinic, pluripotent stem cells could be worth more still.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elie Dolgin is a news editor with Nature Medicine in New York.,

    Elie Dolgin

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  1. Elie Dolgin
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Dolgin, E. Putting stem cells to the test. Nat Med 16, 1354–1357 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1210-1354

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