Scientists Make Neurons From Human Skin Cells Using Only Chemicals

The Brain





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Human chemical-induced neurons. Courtesy of Gang Pei and Jian Zhao.

The ability to give cells new identities in the lab holds huge potential not just to dramatically improve our knowledge of cell biology and disease, but also for the promising fields of regenerative and personalized medicine. And scientists may have just made a giant stride in this area, as two groups in China have independently come up with techniques that allow for the conversion of skin cells into neurons, without the need to introduce potentially problematic genes.