Pain in a dish: Researchers turn skin cells into pain sensing neurons

Human noxious stimulus detecting sensory neurons produced by converting skin cells with a set of five genes to this new fate -- enabling study of 'pain' in a dish. Credit: Liz Buttermore After more than six years of intensive effort, and repeated failures that made the quest at times seem futile, Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology have successfully converted mouse and human skin cells into pain sensing neurons that respond to a number of stimuli that cause acute and inflammatory pain.

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