Exploring the genomes of mice and men
New research by Ting Wang, PhD, (left) and graduate student Vasavi Sundaram has uncovered some striking differences in the genomes of humans and mice that can help scientists determine when a mouse may be a good stand-in to study human biology and disease.
Human skin cells reprogrammed directly into brain cells
School of Medicine scientists have described a way to convert human skin
cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by
Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder.
Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new
process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production
of multiple cell types.