It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease appears to be fast on the way to being realized.

Researchers in November announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues.

Then just earlier this month a different team announced it had cured sickle cell anemia in mice using stem cells derived from adult mouse skin.

"This is truly the Holy Grail: To be able to take a few cells from a patient -- say a cheek swab or few skin cells -- and turn them into stem cells in the laboratory," said Robert Lanza, a stem cell pioneer at Advanced Cell Technology.

"This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone - the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers' first airplane," he told AFP.

What does Biotechnology have to do with me ?

An eye-opening video on how we currently stand with BioTechnology, and what the future may hold. This video explains in-depth the future directions that the biotech industry might take.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has come up with one of many definitions of biotechnology:

"Biotechnology has contributed towards the exploitation of biological organisms or biological processes through modern techniques, which could be profitably used in medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry and environmental cloning."

Japan’s leading genetics researcher could be “a matter of months” from reaching the Holy Grail of biotechnology – producing an “ethical” human stem cell without using a human embryo, he has said.

But in an exclusive interview with The Times, Shinya Yamanaka urged the scientific community: “Do not stop stem-cell research with human embryos, because patients will die if you do stop.” Although his work could transform the stem-cell field, speaking on the eve of his arrival in Britain to present research to geneticists, Professor Yamanaka emphasised that “right now, embryonic stem cells are vital to medical research”.

By Matt Canham

I’m sure you’ve already heard about Stem Cells. Maybe you saw a news story or a read a news article or saw the Presidential address. They are the most widely publicized scientific discovery today and with good reason. How about Embryonic Stem Cells? They have created a great deal of controversy and with good reason. The lure of what Embryonic Stem Cells can do for our health has led to ethical issues surrounding such things as embryo harvesting. One thing remains, Stem Cells represent the future of Health and Wellness as we know it. And they are here to stay.

UK scientists are turning to stem cell technology in the regeneration of eyesight lost as a result of an age-related disease that affects nearly a quarter of all over-60-year-olds.

A groundbreaking surgical therapy capable of stabilising and restoring vision in the vast majority of patients who currently suffer blindness through Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is to be taken to clinical trial by scientists and clinicians at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University of Sheffield.

The therapy, using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells to replace the faulty retinal cells that cause AMD, will be developed by the London Project to Cure AMD, a collaborative project launched today that brings together some of the leading specialists in the field.

By: Amy Shah

The very mention of the words “stem cell” perk up everyone’s ears. Although this topic is so controversial and exciting, do most people understand what stem cells are? This is a basic guide to stem cells with all the definitions, abbreviations, and applications you need to know to carry on a conversation about stem cell development, research, or controversy.

Cells - The Basic Unit of Life

Tissue for transplants could be available within three years if trials are successful

By: Alok Jha, science correspondent for the Guardian Unlimited

A British research team led by the world's leading heart surgeon has grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time. If animal trials scheduled for later this year prove successful, replacement tissue could be used in transplants for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from heart disease within three years.

Sir Magdi Yacoub, a professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, has worked on ways to tackle the shortage of donated hearts for transplant for more than a decade. His team at the heart science centre at Harefield hospital have grown tissue that works in the same way as the valves in human hearts, a significant step towards the goal of growing whole replacement hearts from stem cells.

Human adult stem cells isolated from human adult blood vessels are able to regenerate muscle in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy, according to a study published online in Nature Cell Biology.

The lure of a cure for muscle-wasting diseases has lead researchers to explore the regeneration potential of stem cells isolated from the walls of blood vessels. In a recent Nature paper Giulio Cossu and colleagues showed that such cells isolated from young golden retrievers regenerated the muscles of dystrophic dogs when injected into their circulation. A new study by the same team demonstrates that cells with similar properties can be isolated from human juvenile and adult blood vessels.