To circumvent the ethical issues involved in
the use of embryonic stem cells, pluripotent cells were generated directly from the
patients' own cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells are non-pluripotent adult cells
(somatic cells) which have been genetically reprogrammed to form pluripotent cells.
The iPSC technology develops patient-specific cell therapy protocols. The availability
of iPSCs is particularly advantageous for research involving neurological diseases,
since it is difficult to obtain diseased tissue sample for study from living patients