Biopsy can now be done with a needle through the skin using CT imaging to guide the needle.

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It is hoped the techniques will revolutionise medicine by using a sample of person's skin to create stem cells.

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Right now, the new techniques, which change skin cells into stem cells by using a virus to alter four genes, still need to be proven.

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He described the potential of using a patient's own skin cells and a donor egg to produce neural cells that would be injected into the brain.

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The witness told the court that several samples taken using sticky tape to pick up skin cells showed a mixture of DNA from two or three individuals.

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When it is damaged -- sometimes congenitally, or as result of disease, pelvic fractures or other traumas -- it is usually replaced using tissue harvested from the lining of a patient's cheeks or using skin grafted from another area of the body, according to Atala.

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In a recent development, embryonic stem cells have been created by using viruses to modify the genes of skin cells.

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