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Skin Cells Can Become Embryonic Stem Cells

The discovery that human body cells can be used as stem cells is creating buzz in the scientific community. Experts say the development will likely transform research; in the political world, some say it will end the debate over the need to use human embryos.

Host Madeleine Brand talks about the finding with NPR’s science correspondent Joe Palca. And Alex Cohen discusses the moral and political impacts of this discovery with bioethicist Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Levin, who advised President Bush on the stem cell issue, said the president has been hoping for this kind of alternative to embryonic stem cell research.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. utm

Madeleine Brand is the host of NPR’s newest and fastest-growing daily show, Day to Day. She conducts interviews with newsmakers (Iraqi politicians, US senators), entertainment figures (Bernardo Bertolluci, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Gervais), and the everyday people affected by the news (an autoworker laid off at GM, a mother whose son was killed in Iraq).

Brand has covered serious news stories (the election of the new Pope, the death of Ronald Reagan, the debate over torture) and human interest stories (the 50th anniversary of Lolita, Las Vegas’s 100th birthday, the Hollywood paparazzi.)

Before joining Day to Day, she was a correspondent/back-up host for Morning Edition, where she also: traveled with Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 Presidential campaign; reported from London; and produced several investigative pieces about children mistreated by government agencies. One story was about a boy forgotten by the Washington, D.C. foster-care system; another explored how a South Dakota girl died at a state-run boot-camp.

Madeleine has also worked at various public radio stations in cities across the country, including San Francisco, Boston, Newark, and Buffalo. She taught radio documentary at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, her alma mater. She also has a bachelor's in English from the University of California, Berkeley. A native Angeleno, Madeleine hasn’t lived on the West Coast since college. Living and working in L.A. now, Madeleine likes to pretend she’s still a New Yorker, wearing black in 80 degree weather and hailing taxi cabs by the side of the 110 freeway. She still hasn’t caught one.

Day to Day made its debut on July 28, 2003. It currently has more than 1.7 million listeners on more than 180 NPR Member stations around the country, including in the New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. Created to provide NPR listeners with a much-requested news program between the early hours of Morning Edition and the drive-time schedule of All Things Considered, Day to Day continues to fulfill its mission as a trusted NPR news source, yet with a slightly faster pace and rhythm suited to its mid-day time slot.

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