Marius Wernig Reports Advance in Creating Neural Stem Cells

Marius Wernig, MD, a NYSCF – Robertson Investigator at Stanford University, released an update to previously published work confirming that mouse skin cells can bypass the stem cell stage and be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, including the neural precursor cells that develop into neurons. In conjunction with the prior research, this new study indicates strongly that this new technique may be used to quickly generate large amounts of neural precursor cells for use in disease modeling and drug screening. In addition, Dr. Wernig and his team are hopeful that the technique may hold therapeutic potential to generate patient-specific cells to replace ones damaged by disease. This study was announced online on January 30th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.