In what was obviously the result of one-sided, ideological beliefs, the Bush administration restricted U.S. federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research in 2001. Stem cells from human embryos can differentiate between all cell types, and have the regenerative qualities to form any human tissue. There is a broad belief that stem cells are the future super cure for injuries and diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s. It is unfortunate how the former U.S. president severely halted the progress of such important scientific research.

U.S. president Barack Obama made a declaration on March 10th, stating that science rather than political ideology would guide his administration, announcing the reversal of the stem cell research policy. “Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry,” the president said, leaving whether or not the federal financing ban on embryo research would be lifted, to Congress. This has made way for the possibility of federal funding to a field that has sustained its research by private funding the last eight years. Until Congress resolves the matter, it is not certain how much federal money will be issued, but Obama made it clear he would work towards making up for ground lost during the preceding administration’s sitting. “Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident,” Obama declared.

This only nine days after the publishing of a study reporting a major breakthrough in the research of stem cells. In the study dated March 1st, Dr. Andras Nagy at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital announces a method of creating stem cells from other types of “adult” cells. This advance will mark a significant rise in the technology of stem cells and may change the approach to them, as “this new method of generating stem cells does not require embryos as starting points and could be used to generate cells from many adult tissues such as a patient’s own skin cells,” according to Dr. Nagy.

“Dr. Nagy’s method uses a novel wrapping procedure to deliver specific genes to reprogram cells into stem cells. Previous approaches required the use of viruses to deliver the required genes, a method that carries the risk of damaging the DNA. Dr. Nagy’s method does not require viruses, and so overcomes a major hurdle for the future of safe, personalized stem cell therapies in humans,” the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital reports.

The work of Dr. Nagy will certainly have quite an impact on the exploration of alternative stem cell therapies, opening new doors for regenerative medicine. Reprogrammed cells’ actual practical use in medicine has just gotten a little less sci-fi. The research undertaken was financially backed by the Canadian Stem Cell Network and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the United States.