Posted on 11/02/2008 7:27:35 PM PST by neverdem
Since their discovery, stem cells have been hailed as the ultimate answer for crippling and incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other conditions that leave vital organs like heart or nerves damaged beyond repair.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, under the leadership of Professor Austin Smith, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge, recently published a paper detailing a new technology that can transform adult stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). This technique is able to reliably reprogram adult cells into iPS rapidly and can forego the need to rely on mammalian embryos to generate pluripotent stem cells.
Working with stem cells has proved a much greater challenge than foreseen, however, as both scientific and ethical challenges confront stem cell research from all sides. Stem cells are tricky to work with and although they are indefinite, can stop dividing at any time. The best stem cells are also the cells with the least amount of differentiation (or development). These cells occur during embryonic development and the harvesting of such cells results in the death of the rest of the embryo. The resulting loss of the embryo is the cause of the ethical dilemmas concerning the usage of stem cells and the development of stem cell research.
Embryonic stem cells have a great deal of potential but the restrictions put in place for federally funded research projects have limited their use and the controversy over the ethical issues has consumed a great deal of time in the science community. This ethical dilemma can be bypassed altogether if adult mammalian cells are reprogrammed to form iPS, which are cells almost identical to those from embryonic stem cells but which come from adult tissue instead of embryos, and the same results...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I believe you can use that link to work the online phonebank for McCain/Palin. If you have unlimited long distance, why not?
Stay home or vote third party. Don't be surprised with what you get.
http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/ObamaLetterNRAAd.pdf
Stem Cell FReebie
Sounds like Stem Cell Sciences wouldn't be a bad investment. Viruses are avoided.
Another false justification for the supposed "need" for abortion and abortion rights.
Why can't we just allow these people to live and help us all, be they doctors, saints, statesman, nurses, mothers, fathers, etc...?
Just one of these children can be such a force for good.
Stem cells from embryos are moot. Better sources now come from:
Ambiotic fluid
Cord blood
Skin cells
Fat cells
And recent treatments have come from non-embryonic sources.
No treatments have come embryonic cells to date.
“Do We Still Need Embryonic Stem Cells”?
...yes! If you want the perfect martini!
Also, this could all become moot in a few years with newer techniques (manipulating already existing cells into other types of cells).
Yes...if you happen to be a pro-abort and you need a justification for abortion that you hope will salve your guilty conscience...
Has the millenia-old technique of producing babies by having embryos generate stem cells which in turn generate other cells been superceded?
Saw an awesome scientist on Fr. Groeschel’s show on EWTN (Sunday Night Live) talk about how we shouldn’t be doing embryonic stem cell research. He developed one of the alternatives for getting pluripotent stem cells. Great to see someone uninformed.
I love the state of Missouri, but a couple of years ago I became ashamed of our state. We now have a constitutional amendment that requires public funding of this crap science. Talk about just having a snapshot of a faddish technology enshrined in the constitution. I would liken it to having a provision in there that all pinball machines must have digital displays.
Sadly they were able to barely pass this measure using deceptive wording as well as scare tactics and some terrible commericals featuring the Sen./Rev. Danforth. Hey Jack, since you believe that Jesus is truly man as well as truly God, I was just wondering if you would be in favor of this type of reseach on Jesus if He were an embryo in modern America. Just asking.
If you are making reference to reproductive cloning, I don't believe it's legal, at least in the US. What they want, I believe, is therapeutic cloning, ideally with an intravenous infusion of adult stem cells from the same patient's induced pluripotent stem cells. They want cells from the same patient. They don't want immunosuppressant drugs to be involved.
Is reproductive cloning a millenia-old technique? How would babies have been produced a thousand years ago? I'm pretty certain embryonic stem cells would have been involved, though people would not have realized it at the time.
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