Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University has proposed we establish stem cell banks for stem cell produced from donors’ ordinary skin cells. His new breakthrough, taking skin cells and reprogramming them to ’embryonic like’ cells has already been replicated and proven easy and inexpensive to do.

Yamanaka said, “By making such a bank, we can cut down the cost of treatment and also we can shorten the period which is required for the generation of iPS cells,” he said. “In reality, tailor-made medicine using iPS cells is not so ideal.”

The U.S. is already a leader in cord blood stem cell banking, so why not expand upon that practice and add skin cell banks!

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.