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So human embryonic stem cells were made from human embryos, and the
NIH has approved--I believe it's around 200 different human embryonic
stem cell lines for use.
Because the cells are from the human embryo and the human embryo can
make every cell type in our body, the human embryonic stem cells have
the potential to make the different cell types.
They don't organize obviously in a body form in a dish, but they can
make the different cell types.
Induced pluripotent stem [IPS] cells are those that come from the
skin, and we add some genes.
We overexpress some genes that are normally expressed in human
embryonic stem cells.
And that changes their fate from skin cells to look like embryonic cells.
And we use both kinds of cells for different reasons.
If we want to understand natural development, how things might occur
from the native embryonic cells, we use embryonic stem cells.
If we want to understand why a person might be infertile, then we
would derive a stem cell line from that person and look at their
genetic makeup.
And so there's different reasons to use both types of cell types.
So anybody in a room, we can make an IPS line in about 2 weeks now
and so we can have the genetic diversity of the human population at our hands.