In findings that confirm linkurl:previous ones;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/24363/ ultimately dismissed as hype in 2006, scientists have shown that it is possible to create stem cells from an embryo without destroying it. In a linkurl:study;http://images.cell.com/images/EdImages/chung.pdf published online this week in __Cell Stem Cell,__ scientists led by Advanced Cell Technology's Robert Lanza removed one cell from an eight-cell embryo and created viable lines of stem cells. The embryos developed normally for five days after the procedure, which was similar to the single cell biopsy that fertility clinics perform (called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD). The stem cell lines could retain pluripotency and develop into all three germ layers. Lanza and his colleagues published similar evidence in 2006, but they relied on linkurl:indirect evidence;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/24413 to conclude that the technique was benign. Despite this, a press release from __Nature,__ where the paper was published, and numerous news reports hailed the findings as the ethical antidote to...

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