A major breakthrough that could help people with an assortment of cognitive dysfunctions and other conditions has been achieved by two research teams in China. Both groups independently discovered a new mechanism for converting ordinary skin cells into neurons using groups of small molecules that can pass right through the nucleus of a cell, deactivate the molecular code that causes the cell to become a skin cell and stimulate the gene required for neuron development. After a few weeks, the transformation was complete and skin cells in petri dishes began to look and behave like fully functional neurons.
In the past, gene insertion has been used to transform cells also but this technique is tedious, time consuming and risky as the introduction of another gene could potentially have unintended side effects such as an increased risk of cancer. The new technique is safer, easier and can utilize the subject's own cells to reduce the risk of rejection by the immune system. The ability to convert cells this way may also prove to be invaluable for non-cognitive ailments such as diabetes, paralysis, visual impairment, etc.
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