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Life Science Zurich Communication & Events

Building muscle in the lab

A new method allows large quantities of muscle stem cells to be safely obtained in cell culture. This provides a potential for treating patients with muscle diseases – and for those who would like to eat meat, but don’t want to kill animals.

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Muscle stem cells and fibers can be grown in the laboratory from reprogrammed connective tissue cells (microscopy image). (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Bar-​Nur lab)

In brief

  • Connective tissue cells can now be transformed into muscle stem cells without genetic engineering. 
  • This approach could prove relevant for therapeutic applications in patients with muscle diseases.
  • In developing this new method, the researchers were inspired by the mRNA vaccines for COVID-​19.

ETH News