Stem cell breakthrough

• Stem cells can turn into entire animals.
• This “elixir of life” has enabled scientists to analyze species.
• Tsinghua University scientists created a cocktail.

Stem cell can turn into entire animals due to a drug combination. A mix of drugs that can make stem cells grow into whole animals.

This “elixir of life” has enabled scientists to analyze species’ early evolution. This helps stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and endangered animals.

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Though in its infancy, such technology may have problematic applications in the future since it may recreate an existing species without sperm and eggs.

Tsinghua University scientists created a cocktail of chemicals that may turn mouse pluripotent stem cells into totipotent stem cells.

TTNPB, 1-Azakenpaullone, and WS6 compose TAW. In TAW, researchers grew mouse pluripotent stem cells and totipotent stem cells.

Totipotent stem cells form early after fertilization in embryonic cell division. External placental and foetal membranes. Therefore, totipotent stem cells are called the “seed of life.”

External placental and foetal membranes. Therefore, totipotent stem cells are called the “seed of life.”

Pluripotent stem cells differentiate from totipotent cells at later stages of development, so they lose some variety but can still become any body cell.

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After totipotent cells, no other stem cells can develop life on their own, says research author Ding Sheng.

Life doesn’t necessarily originate from germline cells, which sexually reproducing organisms utilize to pass on DNA. Ding called totipotent cells “biology’s holy grail.”

Somatic cells become pluripotent. 2012 Physiology/Medicine Nobel Prize.

The lab mouse is alive. Ding’s team acknowledges their work’s ethical and philosophical implications.

The ethics of Ding’s research shift. Future generations must learn to assess cutting-edge technologies responsibly.