Stanford fruit-fly study adds weight to the 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. “Once we figured out what was happening, however, the results were very clear.” Weaver is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Mark Krasnow, MD, PhD, professor and chair of biochemistry. More "med.standford.edu":[ http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2008/july/fruit-fly.html]

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