Scientists have now come up with a way to bypass these arguments and have harvested stem cells from ordinary human skin cells. This achievement promises to spur research efforts in stem cells and perhaps cure for hitherto fatal diseases are on the horizon.

Stem cells are the building blocks of all types of cells in the body and have the potential to develop into any cell type.

When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function. As their name suggests, embryonic stem cells are the ones derived from embryos.

The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Because this method involves sacrificing embryos, it has faced criticism as well as brought up ethical issues for scientists. Now two teams have found a way to turn ordinary human skin cells into embryonic stem cells.

Basically the teams used a "direct reprogramming" technique by mixing four genetic factors with normal skin cells to turn them into stem cells. The teams from Kyoto University in Japan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have published their work in the journal Cell and Science respectively.

The new discovery builds on the work of Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in 2006 when he had demonstrated the same success with the skin cells of mice.

The Japanese team used growth factors called OCT3/4, SOX2, C-MYC, and KLF4 to get their embryonic stem cells, which they are calling as "induced pluripotent stem cells," or iPS cells.

On the other hand the Wisconsin team arrived at the same result by using slightly different growth factors. They used OCT4, NANOG, SOX2 and LIN28 for getting iPS cells.

"We weren't avoiding the ethical controversy -- we just thought this was an alternative approach that would work quicker," said lead researcher of the second study James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

The new findings are a boost for the White House, which has consistently maintained that ethical principles be observed when harvesting embryonic stem cells. Scientifically though these findings are a huge breakthrough. If these techniques can be replicated in practice then the cure for cancer may not be all that far away.

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