The fiscal 2008 draft budget includes ¥2.2 billion to push research on the so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, with an iPS cell research center to be established at Kyoto University. The government has decided to spend more than ¥10 billion over the next five years to promote research. This is a welcome move that will advance regenerative medicine and give hope to patients.
Professor Shinya Yamanaka's team at Kyoto University announced in November that it had succeeded in producing the equivalent to embryonic stem cells by "reprogramming" human skin cells. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin announced a similar success at the same time. The reprogrammed skin cells can develop into various kinds of body tissue and cells, including heart tissue and neurons.
Professor Yamanaka started the research about a decade ago. In 2006, he showed that iPS cells can be created by transplanting four key genes into cultured somatic cells of a mouse — a method never tried before. About a year later, he succeeded in creating iPS cells, using human skin cells.