Flab and freckles could advance stem cell research

 From Nature News,  September 7, 2009:

"Fat cells and pigment-producing skin cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells much faster and more efficiently than the skin cells that are usually used — suggesting large bellies and little black moles could provide much-needed material for deriving patient-specific stem cells.
"More than one type of adult somatic cell can serve as a target for reprogramming to a pluripotent state," says William Lowry, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research. "You don't have to use fibroblasts. There are other possibilities."

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The research the article is based upon is from this paper: Sun, N. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA advance online publication doi:10.1073/pnas.0908450106 (2009).