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"Once we have found the factors by which body cells can be re-programmed into stem cells, then therapeutic cloning might become superfluous," said Hans R. Schler, director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Mnster, Germany, at an international scientific symposium on stem cell research in Kobe, Japan.

From September 1 - 3, 2005, acclaimed stem cell researchers from around the world met at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) to discuss the current status of their science. The workshop titled "Stem Cells in Reproduction and in the Brain" was held as part of the "Germany in Japan Year" 2005/2006 and was jointly organized by the Ernst Schering Research Foundation, the Max Planck Society and the RIKEN CDB.

"The fact that cell biology is becoming increasingly combined with molecular biology is a major step forward," Schler explained. The co-organizer of the symposium drew his confidence from a series of lectures on the factors influencing the origin and the differentiation of stem cells.

Philippe Collas of the University of Oslo, Norway, for example, succeeded in converting human skin cells back into a multi-potent stage with an extract mixture of pluri potent embryonic carcinoma cells. Jeong Tae Do of the Max Planck Institute in Mnster showed that even differentiated body cells can be re-programmed into embryonic stem cells. He merged brain cells from mice with embryonic stem cells. The result was a hybrid cell with a quadruple set of chromosomes. The cells did not differ from normal embryonic stem cells with regard to their molecular biological behavior.

Other researchers are finding the key to the opposite path: They are searching for substances that contribute to the differentiation of stem cells.

Thus Tomohiro Kono of the Tokyo Agricultural University, Japan, p
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Contact: Prof. Dr. Hans R. Schoeler
schoeler@mpi-muenster.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
8-Sep-2005