Aggregated News
Japanese researcher Haruko Obokata's recent breakthrough in the creation of pluripotent stem cells in mice is set to trigger an all-out global patent war.
This is because of the huge potential for applications in regenerative medicine and related fields.
The 30-year-old stem cell biologist, who is head of a research team at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, made world headlines last week after the prestigious British scientific journal Nature carried her discovery of a new method to create pluripotent stem cells in mice.
It initially rejected a paper submitted by Obokata on her research into “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (STAP), calling it “unbelievable.”
STAP cell creation is simpler than the process for induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and gene damage in STAP cells is minimal compared with embryonic stem cells.
When Yoshiki Sasai, deputy director of Riken CDB, was asked about the patent application on the discovery at a news conference in Kobe on Jan. 28, he said, “I cannot discuss what we are doing.”
But it turns out that Riken took appropriate steps in the...
This is because of the huge potential for applications in regenerative medicine and related fields.
The 30-year-old stem cell biologist, who is head of a research team at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, made world headlines last week after the prestigious British scientific journal Nature carried her discovery of a new method to create pluripotent stem cells in mice.
It initially rejected a paper submitted by Obokata on her research into “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (STAP), calling it “unbelievable.”
STAP cell creation is simpler than the process for induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and gene damage in STAP cells is minimal compared with embryonic stem cells.
When Yoshiki Sasai, deputy director of Riken CDB, was asked about the patent application on the discovery at a news conference in Kobe on Jan. 28, he said, “I cannot discuss what we are doing.”
But it turns out that Riken took appropriate steps in the...