Recent developments from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have released findings that show positive results in reprogramming skin cells of mice that may be able to improve symptoms of rats and mice afflicted with Parkinson's disease. They have announced that reprogrammed skin cells may translate into functioning neurons in the brain. Harvard and MIT researchers believe that the use of such reprogrammed cells will help to alleviate the moral and ethical prohibitions that have affected stem cell research for over a decade.

Within the stem cell research community, the recent discoveries of the ability of human skin cells to form multiple types of cells that may grow into a wide range of tissues is accepted. In addition, they were able to firmly establish that skin cells taken from a mouse could turn into functioning neurons in laboratory cultures. Marius Wernig, a fellow at the Whitehead Institute says that the cells "migrate nicely" into the brain and mature there and "adopt functions of mature neurons."

According to the study results, rats and mice experiencing damaged dopamine neurons, who were given the transplants of neurons developed from the induced pluripotent stem cells, showed an improvement in motor skill problems associated with Parkinson's.

Wernig says that their next focus will be to target specific genes with drugs. However, pluripotent stem cells that originate with the patient's own skin will provide no complications due to the immune system rejection, a major step forward in such research and development.