SCIENCE: 21. 6. 2013

SCIENCE: Does Cloning Produce Better Embryonic Stem Cells?

BOSTON—For the past month, Shoukhrat Mitalipov has experienced the ups and downs of being a scientific celebrity. Widely lauded at first for accomplishing a long-sought feat, the production of cloned human embryonic stem (ES) cells, the reproductive biology specialist at Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton was soon on the defensive for mistakes his team had made in the paper on the work that had been rushed into publication (Science, 31 May, p. 1026).

Colleagues have so far given him the benefit of the doubt, despite memories of a South Korean team fraudulently claiming the same victory nearly a decade ago. Mitalipov last week sought to allay any remaining fears by laying out his evidence at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Perhaps more provocative, he also showed the first data hinting that his cloned human ES cells may trump another kind of stem cell now in vogue, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Mitalipov said that compared with iPS cells, his cells bear "fewer abnormalities" and "more closely resemble genuine embryonic stem cells," traits that may favor their use to study and perhaps treat particular conditions, such as diseases of a cell's energy-producing mitochondria.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6139.toc