Aged Neurons Can Now Be Generated Using Stem Cell Technology

October 9, 2015

(Eurekalert) – Diseases of human aging have always been difficult to study in the lab. Stem cell technology always had promise, but when scientists reverted a skin cell from an 89-year-old woman back into a stem cell-like state, the cells became young again. Now, a new approach, presented October 8 in Cell Stem Cell, makes it possible to generate and grow cultures of neurons with gene expression reflecting a patient’s age.