Fruit-fly Study Adds Weight To Theories About Another Type Of Adult Stem Cell

It turns out that an old dog - or at least an old fruit-fly cell - can learn new tricks. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that mature, specialized cells naturally regress to serve as a kind of de facto stem cell during the fruit-fly life cycle.

The surprising discovery counters the common belief that the ability to form new cell types or tissues wanes as a cell becomes more specialized.

"It was mind-boggling, because it went completely against what we had expected to see happening," said lead researcher Molly Weaver, PhD.

Whole article on sciencedaily