If they were close to "universal blood" with hESC's what would yestedays announcement be for? The bolded below indicates a change of direction,imo. This won't happen anytime soon,imo. Don't get me started on Caldwells $8.5MM bonus..lol
"In this proposal, based on our recent "proof-of-concept" results, we hypothesize that hiPS cells suitable for clinical translation can be generated by direct delivery of reprogramming proteins attached to a cell penetrating peptide. In particular, we will generate fully reprogrammed hiPS cell lines from both healthy and O(-) subjects by direct protein delivery and test whether these cells can be propagated and expanded in vitro indefinitely, thus providing a potentially inexhaustible and donor-less source of blood lineage cells. This proposal will fully optimize the protein reprogramming methods to establish a highly efficient and safe way of reprogramming human tissues without genetic manipulation, and will address whether these hiPS cells can be used as a personalized platelet source and/or universal RBC source."