I can't stress enough that this technology is not ready for prime time right now. It is not a replacement for those techniques that we already have for derivation of embryonic stem cells.

This technique is not ready for prime time now.

There still could be some groups of people that would object to (our method) because at one time the cells were derived from a very early human embryo.

The only way we had to study this process before was using eggs.

We found they could be induced to mature into nerve cells, hair follicles, muscle cells and gut endoderm cells. And when cultured in lab dishes, the cells differentiated, or matured, into the three major basic types of cell.

The work that has been reported there is extremely important, so we are of course troubled by the allegations that have been made and are hopeful that they are not true.

Our technology is not ready for prime time yet. Our results do not offer an alternative now.

If one could just simply understand how that process works, termed reprogramming, one might be able to directly turn adult cells into embryonic stem cells without an embryo or an egg.

The method we have presented is not a replacement for embryonic stem cells. The advantages these offer are purely scientific ones.