Anti-ageing technique makes skin cells act 30 years younger

By Chen Ly.

Stem cells from mature skin cells could be used to treat skin conditions in the future, thanks to a method developed by researchers that can turn back the biological clock on skin cells by 30 years.

In 2007, Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan developed a technique that could transform adult skins cells into stem cells by injecting four specialist molecules. It takes around 50 days for normal cells to be reprogrammed into iPSCs.

When you turn a cell into an iPSC, you lose the original cell type and its function.

Gill and his colleagues have come up with a way to use Yamanaka factors to revive skin cells.