Korea has secured technology to create patient-specific stem cells using skin tissue, becoming the third country in the world to do so after the U.S. and Japan.

A research team led by Professor Park Se-pill of the Jeju National Stem Cell Research Institute at Jeju National University announced the findings, working in collaboration with Mirae Biotech Research Institute and the Department of Animal Biotechnology at Konkuk University in Seoul.

The team says it's applied for domestic and international patents on the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) that researchers produced from the somatic cells of a mouse.

The researchers say they injected four genes into a mouse cell, which served as catalysts in the creation of stem cells. They confirmed that they had created stem cells by examining their gene expression under a fluorescent microscope.

The group claimed they were also able to differentiate liver, nerve and muscle cells from the stem cells.

If this method is successful, it could bypass ethical concerns in stem cell research as it does not require the use of human embryos.