• The team stumbled across a previously unknown variety of pluripotent cell—which can give rise to any type of tissue—while attempting to graft human pluripotent stem cells into mouse embryos.
  • Scientists previously knew about two other types of pluripotent stem cells, but growing them in large numbers or guiding them to mature into specific types of adult cells has proven difficult.
  • Gene editing could help scientists to optimize human cells’ ability to grow within another species, allowing the creation of transgenic chimaeras. Tesar says that the idea of using human pluripotent cells, such as rsPSCs, to create animals with human organs is not unrealistic, but he expects that it will be very difficult.

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