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| Science & Technology |
| Making healthy stem cells from normal adult cells |
| 2008-09-28 |
| Scientists may have found a safer way of giving a flake of skin the biologically alchemical powers of embryonic stem cells. They turned adult cells into versatile, embryonic-like cells without causing permanent damage -- potentially solving the central problem of a promising but uncertain field of stem cell science. "This is certainly a major stem cell milestone," said Advanced Cell Technologies chief scientific officer Bob Lanza, who was not involved in the research. "It's the first ray of light that iPS cells could soon be used to treat patients." These iPS cells -- short for induced pluripotent stem cell -- debuted less than a year ago: By using viruses to insert key developmental genes, researchers coaxed human skin cells into an embryonic state, capable of growing into almost any other type of tissue. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #7 What James said, although I don't even play a biologist on tv. The kickback with the abortion stem cells, though, is more likely the vicarious pleasure of throwing it in the faces of those who object. That feeling of 'speaking truth to power' is more valuable to some than actual money. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-09-28 22:25 |
| #6 You'd think it would be a no-brainer that your own stem cells would be far better than someone else's for treating your diseases. They're guaranteed to have the same proteins as your other cells and be able to communicate accurately with your other tissues. Somebody else's: maybe, maybe not. |
| Posted by: James 2008-09-28 22:07 |
| #5 The problem wiht that ANon, is that you don't get an abortion industry kickback and payoff liek you do with embryonic stem cells. That's a very big business that thrives on death and will not allow anyone to come close to limiting it. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-09-28 19:55 |
| #4 But the endometrial stem cells from menstrual blood appear a lot better choice. Abundantly available and biologically superior without any poking with virus. Really want to know? Read the research publication by Xiaolong Meng, Thomas E Ichim, Jie Zhong et.al. “Endometrial regenerative cells: A novel stem cell population”, Journal of Translational Medicine 2007, 5:57 doi:10.1186/1479-5876-5-57. This is an open access article available from: http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/5/1/57 Annon. |
| Posted by: Annon 2008-09-28 18:34 |
| #3 Not to mention that there are many, many more flakes of skin available to work with. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-09-28 16:09 |
| #2 Glad to see this - its much better than all the wasted money on embryonic stem cells, which are morally questionable. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-09-28 16:05 |
| #1 We've been collecting cord blood donations from healthy mothers where I work: cord blood stem cells |
| Posted by: Jan 2008-09-28 13:38 |