After nearly 10 years of controversy, scientists seem little closer to achieving “miracle cures” with embryonic stem cells – although two clinical trials have begun recently. But that was only one of the benefits promised by its supporters. The other one was the possibility of creating “diseases in a dish” for drug discovery.

Now, according to the journal Science, great progress has been made in the study of intractable diseases – but with induced pluripotent stem cells, not embryonic stem cells. “For the first time, we have the ability to take any disease that is out there, take a few cells from a patient, and create pluripotent cells in a dish,” says Gustavo Mostoslavsky, a stem cell scientist at Boston University School of Medicine. “I think we will see an explosion of papers in the next few years.”

In fact, nearly all the diseases mentioned in pleas by scientists and celebrities who were desperate to use human embryonic stem cells back in 2002 are now being studied with iPS cells, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.

Reprogramming technologies are less than 5 years old, but Harvard’s Kevin Eggan told Science, “it's hard not to be pretty pleased with the progress that's been made in a few short years.” One company specialising in iPS cells is even turning a profit in a notoriously risky field. Cellular Dynamics International, of Madison, Wisconsin, sells heart muscle cells  which have been derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for $1500 a vial. Dozens of drug companies buy the cells to test their products for side-effects upon the heart.

So was all the fighting over embryonic stem cells necessary? No one seems to be asking the question. ~ Science, Nov 26