Posted on 06/10/2009 11:38:47 AM PDT by neverdem
British scientists are among the world leaders in stem cell research - and their latest discoveries could transform medicine forever
We have been told for almost a decade that stem cells are the future of medicine: that these tiny clumps of tissue could become a biological "repair kit", able to regenerate or heal almost any part of the body. But amid all the prophecies of patches for damaged hearts, new nerve cells for spinal injuries or stroke victims, and insulin-producing cells for diabetics, few people predicted that it would be British-based scientists who would be leading the way in mapping out this new terrain.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph last week, Professor Steve Jones bemoaned the failure of genetic research to deliver on its promises. Yet no such complaint could be made about stem cells, the "prototype" cells that are capable of growing into any of the 300 different kinds of cell in the body. As they make the leap from the lab to the clinic, new breakthroughs and developments are emerging from British universities on an almost weekly basis. Scientists, normally hesitant to overstate the significance of any work, are starting to talk about a new era of medicine.
"The technology has come of age a lot faster than people expected," says Professor Pete Coffey of University College London. "We all saw this as a technology that had potential for clinical application, but it has gone very quickly down that route."
Of all people, Prof Coffey should know. Last week, he signed a deal with one of the world's biggest drug companies, Pfizer, to develop a treatment for a common cause of blindness. He has shown it is possible to use stem cells to halt the damage caused by age-related macular degeneration, a condition affecting more than 500,000 Britons,...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
You really have to dig in to this article to see that virtually all advances have been made using ADULT stem cells. Which makes the assertion that Obama’s lifting of the embryonic stem cell funding ban will allow America to catch up to Britain appear rather absurd, and misleading too.
Praise the Lord. I hope they help a lot of people/
It like saying my neighbor has a hundred dollars and I have none but on average the two of us have fifty dollars each.
However my wallet is still empty despite my average money.
In medical lingo, no, it's a spontaneous abortion that was incompatible with life from an inherited defect, acquired infection, etc. If you do obstricts, both count as an abortion as far as a woman's medical history goes. But depending on the time from conception most of their cells are well along to a committed cell type, i.e. differentiated according to the germ layer the cells came from. That's why induced pluripotent stem cells are the big deal now. They can take skin cells, reprogram them and get cells that appear to have all of the traits of human embryonic stem cells.
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