Embryonic stem cells morph into heart cells

Could be useful for drug testing
Scientists have succeeded in turning human embryonic stem cells into three types of heart muscle cells, although they warn that therapeutic applications are still far off. Instead, the cells will be used for drug tests. "We have now a supply of human heart cells for biotech and drug companies to start testing the beneficial effects of drugs or the toxic effects of drugs," says Toronto researcher Gordon Keller, the lead author on an article in Nature. And Ralph Snodgrass, of VistaGen, a company involved in the research described it as "another step towards generating and validating functional human heart cells at a scale and purity that is necessary for pharmaceutical discovery applications and for predictive toxicity screening of new drug candidates." ~ Washington Post, Apr 23

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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