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Science 8 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5485, p. 1666
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5485.1666a
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News of the Week

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY:
Brain Cells Turning Over a New Leaf

Gretchen Vogel

New findings described on page 1754 offer the strongest evidence yet that certain cells can be steered onto new career paths even after they've become committed to a particular job. In the current work, researchers managed to coax rat oligodendrocyte precursor cells, which scientists thought were irreversibly committed to becoming neuronal handmaidens called oligodendrocytes or astrocytes, into becoming neurons. Because they ran several experiments to test the purity of their well-characterized cells, they say it is unlikely that the effect was due to undetected immature cells.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)