Stem Cell Breakthrough: Can You Now Make Your Own?

Over the past few years, stem cells have been getting a lot of attention. What makes them so interesting is their ability to stimulate the production of many types of healthy cells. That means that a single stem cell can turn itself into brain cells, liver cells, skin cells, pancreas cells, and so on.

In February of 2003, an article about stem cells was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Center reported, for the first time, that undifferentiated donor stem cells were able to cross the blood brain barrier and morph themselves into neuronal cells.

This was an especially important finding because, of all the cells in the body, neuron cells are the most advanced and complicated. This is significant because it means that if stem cells can morph themselves into brain neurons, then, chances are they can transform themselves into other types of cells too.

In a separate but related area of science, there is a growing body of evidence that a specialized area of nutrition called