Excellent news:

“By introducing four genes (OCT4, NANOG, SOX2 and LIN28), into human fibroblasts, stem cells sharing essentially all features of human ES cells were obtained,” Thomson’s team wrote in their report in Science.

“Similar to human embryonic cells, human iPS cells should prove useful for studying the development and function of human tissues, for discovering and testing new drugs, and for transplantation medicine,” added Thomson, whose team first discovered human embryonic stem cells in 1998.

While the technology is not yet ready for use in humans, it may mark the end of therapeutic cloning.

And that’s very good news.