Ethics debate unstilled by stemcell success: Nobel laureate

Newly-crowned Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka on Monday cautioned that stem cells could still spur sharp debate, despite his achievement in creating cells that are not derived from embryos.

The Japanese scientist was interviewed on a trip to Paris after co-winning the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine last month alongside Britain's John Gurdon.

Yamanaka was lauded for "reprogramming" mature cells so that they return to a versatile primitive state, called stem cells.

Researchers hope that stem cells may one day provide lab-grown tissue to replenish organs damaged by accident or disease.

Only the very first steps have been taken along this road, but the mission has been boosted by Yamanaka's work, for it implies that stem cells culled from embryos -- until now the most potent but also a highly controversial source -- may no longer be needed.

But Yamanaka warned that his induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) are unlikely to escape a storm touching on the creation of life.

"Now we can avoid the use of human embryos, so it's good. However, we are facing new ethical issues," he told AFP.

The question, he said, lies with the creation of so-called germ cells -- cells that give rise to sperm or eggs.

"Can we make sperm from blood and can we fertilise these oocytes (eggs)?" he asked. "We really need discussion in society about how much we can do about this new technology."

Yamanaka said scientists in Kobe had already applied to the Japanese authorities for permission to carry out the world's first iPS trial on humans, using cells on patients suffering from retinal disease.

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Ethics debate unstilled by stemcell success: Nobel laureate