Functional Nerve Cells from Skin Cells

May 22, 2014

(Phys.org) – A new method of generating mature nerve cells from skin cells could greatly enhance understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, and could accelerate the development of new drugs and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. The nerve cells generated by this new method show the same functional characteristics as the mature cells found in the body, making them much better models for the study of age-related diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and for the testing of new drugs.