To scientists: Have lots of fat for making stem cells. Call Me!

Scientists have discovered that fat cells are easier to make into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) than skin cells.  IPS cells are adult cells that have been programmed to act like embryonic stem cells by inducing pluripotency, or the ability to become most or all of the 200 cell types in the body.  From NatureNews:

Fat cells and pigment-producing skin cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells much faster and more efficiently than the skin cells that are usually used — suggesting large bellies and little black moles could provide much-needed material for deriving patient-specific stem cells....

The Stanford researchers used liposuction to extract a couple litres of fat from the bellies of four overweight individuals aged 40 to 65. They then treated the tissue to remove all the gooey, globular fat, leaving behind a collection of fat tissue stem cells. Unlike standard techniques, which require about a month to culture skin biopsies to populations large enough for the reprogramming process, the fat tissue was ready to go after two days of pretreatment.

What's more, the cellular reprogramming took only two more weeks and was 20-times more efficient than when converting fibroblasts using the same technique. "We basically shave off six to eight weeks compared to what the other guys are doing with fibroblasts," says Wu, who is now working to find safer ways to reprogram fat without using viruses.

Please! Stanford researchers: Where can I sign up to donate!?  I've got 10 to 15 lbs of fat that can be put to much better use than making my bottom not fit into my favorite jeans. 

Now that I think of it, I've got a dozen or so moles that you can have too.  Call me!