They are now trying to establish the steps involved in the cells changing from pancreas to liver cells.

BBC: Cell discovery may aid liver transplants

On Monday, the 2012 prize for medicine or physiology was awarded to John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan for changing adult cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body.

BBC: Serge Haroche and David Wineland

On Monday, the 2012 prize for medicine or physiology was awarded to John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan for changing adult cells into stem cells, and on Tuesday the prize for physics was awarded to Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the US for their work in querying single light and matter particles.

BBC: Chemistry Nobel goes to Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka

"You may be losing stem cells in the process or changing the characteristic that shows these cells where to home, " says Hal E.

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McDaniel says that he can send instructions to cells by changing the light's wavelengths, frequency or intensity.

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The mouse work also showed that the retrotransposons were jumping mainly into genes that are active while precursor cells are changing into their destined cell types.

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GentleWaves inventor McDaniel says he can send specific instructions to cells by changing the light's wavelengths, frequency or intensity, but he says the light "codes" he has created are proprietary.

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However, the long-term effects of genetically changing the behaviour of certain corneal cells is not yet known.

BBC: Human cornea grown in lab

Cells in the body are constantly changing.

BBC: It is a relatively new area of cancer research

The gene therapy involved changing the genetic makeup of a virus, then passing it into the lungs to "infect" the cancer cells, and pass on their genetic changes into the cancer cells to sending their reproductive capability haywire.

BBC: Last hope against cancer