SYDNEY, April 13 (UPI) -- Scientists at Australia's University of New South Wales say they have developed three clones of cells from existing human embryonic stem cells.
"This cloning of cells involves a new technique, which is a very accurate way of extracting and then growing a single cell," said lead researcher Kuldip Sidhu, a UNSW senior lecturer based at the Diabetes Transplant Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Sidhu said growing a human stem cell colony from a single cell brings science one step closer to creating a population of cells of a particular type. He said the process could lead to new treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.
"There are about 230 different cell types in the body. All these cells are derived from three embryonic layers -- one which forms the brain and spinal cord, another which forms the guts and liver and a third which forms muscles and bones," he said. "We need to establish a recipe to derive each of these from human embryonic stem cells, so they can be transplanted straight into the affected area of a patient."
