7/10/2011 PERMALINK
Researchers use mRNAs to change both an astrocyte (brain cell) and a fibroblast (skin cell) into a heart cell. Working on the idea that the signature of a cell is defined by molecules called messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which contain the chemical blueprint for how to make a protein. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the direct conversion of a non-heart cell type into a heart cell by RNA transfer.