Embroyonic stem cell
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If Hilde Van de Velde had developed a potentially embryo-gentle method of deriving embryonic stem cells just a few months sooner, the science media would be buzzing today.

Instead, with media and the public suffering from stem cell burnout, Van de Velde's technique -- in which a single cell is removed from a four-cell embryo -- has merited just a single cursory mention by The Press Association.

Granted, she announced her findings at a conference rather than publishing them, but that hasn't stopped coverage before. It's also not certain whether the embryos will eventually develop into healthy people. But the same applied to a similar technique used in February by Advanced Cell Technology's Robert Lanza, and that was widely reported.

Lanza harvested cells from eight-cell embryos; seemingly counterintuitively, removal at the four-cell stage may prove easier and safer. If so, Van de Velde's approach could bear both ethically uncontroversial embryonic stem cells and refinements for preimplantation genetic diagnosis, during which a cell is removed from an embryo and screened for defects.