Stem cells fend off lung cancer

Nature ^ | November 10, 2006 | Charlotte Schubert

[trumandogz]

Seems to me that Not Smoking would be an easier, cheaper and more ethical solution.

[muawiyah]

So far embryonic stem cells haven't had anything to do with human health. When it comes to breeds of experimental mice who are virtually identical at the genetic level, you can slice and dice stuff at will and not need to worry about tissue rejection.

Of course you don't have to worry about that anyway since you are going to kill those mice long before the tissues are rejected.

I'm watching "Dawn of the Dead".

[UpAllNight]

This was with mice. Do you oppose killing mouse embryos?

[swheats]

Somebody help me to understand this madness.

Adult stem cells have made great strides yet the scientists are not out there strumming up more funds to continue research on them. Yet embryonic stem cells have not been successful in humans but it's constantly talked about as though it really saves lives.

[I_Like_Spam]

This information could be very useful to the research folks at Philip Morris when they are devising a new system of cigarette filtration.

Injecting a few of these stem cells into the next generation of the Micronite filter could do wonders I guess.

[UpAllNight]

---Adult stem cells have made great strides yet the scientists are not out there strumming up more funds to continue research on them.---

Scientists ARE 'strumming up' more funds for adult stem cell research ... to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars just from the federal government!

[cryptical]

Adult stem cells have made great strides yet the scientists are not out there strumming up more funds to continue research on them.

Plenty of funds, so they don't have to beg for them. Note the results that keep coming out.

Yet embryonic stem cells have not been successful in humans but it's constantly talked about as though it really saves lives.

Limited (and deteriorating) lines, and limited funding. Some folks around here seem to think that there's a secret cabal of liberals that are pushing embryonic stem cell research to make abortion profitable... A little tinfoil goes a long ways.

[retMD]

Somebody help me to understand this madness. Adult stem cells have made great strides yet the scientists are not out there strumming up more funds to continue research on them. Yet embryonic stem cells have not been successful in humans but it's constantly talked about as though it really saves lives.

If you really want to understand as opposed to making a rhetorical point, here goes: Adult stem cells have been used for many years, and are successful at treating certain diseases. Embryonic stem cells have been researched for a much shorter time, and hold the promise of curing diseases that adult stem cells don't. To a scientist, researching ESC is not to denigrate the value of ASC. The analogy I often use is penicillin and cipro - should they not have continued to research cipro "because cipro hasn't cured anything, and penicillin has already saved thousands of lives"?

I favor funding for both. I can understand ethical objections, but not the pretense that an (approximately) ten year old technology is worthless because it isn't as developed as a (approximately) 40 year old technology.

[UpAllNight]

Another aspect of research is learning how cells develop. Not just in the sense that hESCs cure, but the knowledge we gain might lead to cures that are not dependent on the actual use of stem cells in the cure.

[newzjunkey]

I thought Bush had banned embryonic stem cell research (/sarcasm)

Embryonic stem cells, the controversial and versatile cells that seem able claimed to do just about anything, have now expanded their repertoire into cancer prevention.

There, fixed their immediately obvious bias.

[tdewey10]

"Embryonic stem cells, the controversial and versatile cells that seem able to do just about anything"

Well that's some jimdandy scientific reporting right there. So if I put stem cells next to a Pizza Hut will I get another Pizza Hut? They can do anything right?

[muawiyah]

Not to make abortion profitable ~ it already IS profitable. Rather, there's an organized effort by some, mostly Liberals, Democrats and RINOs, to make cannibalism acceptable under any circumstances and in any form.

Eventually we are going to have to rid ourselves of cannibals.

[muawiyah]

So, here's the deal ~ you invest your money in it.

There, end of story.

[UpAllNight]

--So, here's the deal ~ you invest your money in it.
There, end of story.--

End of Story? You have no problems with embryonic stem cell research if it is not your money?

[retMD]

Absolutely agreed. I've always been impressed by the part serendipity has played in scientific discovery.

[muawiyah]

Hey, at the moment embryonic stem cell research is allowed by law. No one banned it. No one restricted it. You are currently free to go engage in it.

Please do so WITHOUT MY MONEY you cannibalistic leach.

(That was just in case you failed to identify with the cannibals).

[TNdandelion]

You are horribly behind. Embryonic stems cells may reverse global warming and may, in fact, be a viable renewable energy source.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

I don't give much of a damn about mice, to be perfectly honest. Especially the dirty chain-smoking ones these researchers are working do diligently to save.

That's the point of this, no? To save cigarette smoking mice from themselves?

[UpAllNight]

--Please do so WITHOUT MY MONEY you cannibalistic leach.

(That was just in case you failed to identify with the cannibals).

---

I have no idea what you are talking about. I never asked for your money.

[swheats]

"...hold the promise of curing diseases that adult stem cells don't."

Which diseases? Researching penicillin and cipro, did it depend on sacrificing a human embryo to find a cure.

If this isn't to keep abortion rare and legal, what benefit is it for cloning.

I do thank you for responding. I'll search it out to find the answers I need.