Word is out about a new way to turn skin cells into brain cells, which is great for scientists trying to understand and cure neurological diseases. That's because it's much easier for researchers to get ahold of skin cells to use in their studies than brain cells. (Brain cell donors are understandably rare.)
The team, led by students and postdocs working with professor Gerald Crabtree, MD, found to its amazement that a combo of two particular snippets of genetic material called microRNA did the trick.
They published their study in the journal Nature today.
Previously: Human neurons from skin cells without pluripotency?
