New, easy-to-handle technology to create the equivalent of human stem cells from ordinary tissue like skin must be regulated, said an inventor of the technology.
Shinya Yamanaka, a Kyoto University scientist, said any ordinary laboratory can generate such cells, which could be used "in the near future" to make human eggs and sperm — a step on the way to creating a human clone.
"The technology is very simple," Yamanaka, who published his findings last fall at the same time a U.S. research team released similar results, said Wednesday in Tokyo. "You don't need any special equipment.