Scientists Treat 10 Maladies With Adult Stem Cells

If you wonder why Democrats have given up politicking on fetal stem cells, this is the biggest reason why. After all, why kill babies to harvest their stem cells when you can use adult stem cells.

Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute used ordinary skin cells and bone marrow from people with a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's, Huntington's and Down syndrome to produce the stem cells.

The new cells will allow researchers to "watch the disease progress in a dish, that is, to watch what goes right or wrong," Doug Melton, co-director of the institute, said during a teleconference.

"I think we'll see in years ahead that this opens the door to a new way to treating degenerative diseases," he said.