As expected, South Korean researchers were funded by their government. In the US, this same kind of research wouldn't be allowed under federal funding.

"I didn't think they would be at this stage for decades, let alone within a year," said Dr. Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, who acted as an adviser to the Seoul lab in analyzing its data. "All of us in the biomedical communities owe our colleagues in Korea a tremendous debt of gratitude."

"This paper will be of major impact," agreed stem-cell researcher Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass. "The argument that it will not work in humans will not be tenable after this."

Don't confuse this as reproductive cloning. Researchers in this case create embryos to supply the stem cells that are genetically matched to a particular patient and thus wouldn't be rejected by the immune system.

The master cells in this research come from embryos left over in fertility clinics, but those wouldn't genetically match any patient.

Currently therapy such as this is still years away from being tested in people. However, this announcement lists several key advancements ...

In this latest breakthrough they created 11 batches of stem cells that were genetic matches to males and females, as young as 2 and as old as 56, who suffered either spinal cord injuries, diabetes or a genetic immune disease.

Last year, this process with 242 donated human eggs, grew only one batch of stem cells. This time, it took only an average of 17 eggs per batch, 14 if the eggs came from women younger than 30.

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