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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to use a synthetic genetic program to instruct stem cells taken from fatty tissue to become cells that are almost identical to natural beta cells [phys.org]. This brings them a major step closer to a personal repair kit for diabetes sufferers.

Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich's Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, have performed a feat that many specialists had until now held to be impossible: they have extracted stem cells from a 50-year-old test subject's fatty tissue and applied genetic reprogramming to make them mature into functional beta cells.

In the presence of glucose, the beta cells generated using this "genetic software" produce the hormone insulin - just like natural beta cells, which are found in the pancreas. The researchers reported this in the journal Nature Communications.

Best hold onto those love handles.

Original Submission