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By inserting genes that turn back a cell's developmental clock, researchers are gaining insights into disease and the biology of how a cell decides its fate This year, scientists achieved a long-sought feat of cellular alchemy. They took skin cells from patients suffering from a variety of diseases and reprogrammed them into stem cells. The transformed cells grow and divide in the laboratory, giving researchers new tools to study the cellular processes that underlie the patients' diseases. The achievement could also be an important step on a long path to treating diseases with a patient's own cells. CREDIT: C. BICKEL/SCIENCE...

May 10, 2006, 6:21 a.m.Hitting RewindSome scientists are in hot pursuit of ethically acceptable alternatives that do not involve the destruction of embryos. By Father Thomas Berg The South Korean cloning forgery last fall has given a new impetus to the pro-cloning movement in the United States. Scientists in the U.S. are seeking to be the first to produce stem cells from cloned human embryos. On April 13, word came that Harvard University had cleared stem-cell researcher Doug Melton to pursue human cloning. Melton is a Harvard researcher with his own 4,000 sq. ft. basement laboratory, the location of which...