Posts tagged with ‘stem cells’
Three recent studies propel regenerative medicine forward, but don’t yet move it to the clinic. There is still no better venue for studying cell processes than embryonic stem cells.
Harvard researchers report in the online version of Nature that they have developed a method to directly convert tissue cells in a living mouse from one type into another. The development will certainly spark the latest round of discussions over ethical questions involved in stem cell research, but despite the potential for work that builds on this discovery and iPS investigations, human embryonic stem cell research will likely still be an important component of the field for some time to come.
Stem cell based research and products are carefully managed at the federal, state, and university level. Efforts to change or strengthen these rules must demonstrate that even more regulation is actually necessary.
The anti-science forces in Missouri don’t know when to call it quits. This week a state judge decided to hear a lawsuit from the Missouri Roundtable for Life that seeks to block $21 million of state funds from going to the state’s Life Sciences Research Board. The suit may tackle the definitions of reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
Unproven and experimental fertility treatments, combined with an ill-conceived presidential policy on stem cells, have created an industry that needs corralling.
Embryonic stem cell research, strong scientific input on global warming policy, and more federal funding for scientific research: these are all things the American public wants.
According to a recent study published in the journal Cell, federal policy has a measurable impact on the amount of human embryonic stem cell research conducted in different countries.
With no stem cell therapies currently available in the United States, some citizens suffering from dehabilitating conditions turn to “stem cell tourism,” traveling abroad to receive stem cell-based treatments.
The media is abuzz with news of researchers at Cornell University successfully creating the first genetically engineered human embryo, and critics argue that this is a first step towards “designer babies.” But this is not necessarily a slippery slope, and we must consider that the potential rewards of this work are immense.
New legislation would lift the federal ban on funding for new lines of embryonic stem cells and create an ethical oversight mechanism for all research in the area.
Science Progress Editor-In-Chief and Jonathan Moreno explains why researchers need access to more embryonic stem cell lines.
Reporting on the work of the Hinxton Group, experts explained the state of the science and criticized policies that aim to avoid all ethical disagreement by banning research.
Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have announced the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos intended to provide stem cells for research. The intersection of embryonic stem cell and hybrid research could renew bioethical debates on this side of the pond.
Amid the premature hype about induced pluripotent stem cells (hyped by everyone but the scientists who did the work themselves), the unique characteristics of embryonic stem cells as platforms for learning about human disease can too easily be lost. An important new study should help correct this oversight.
A company in Irvine, California reported that it has developed a “non-viral” method of reprogramming human adult cells to behave like stem cells. Other scientists are showing caution after the announcement, but the company is keeping the research under wraps until it “finalizes an agreement with a corporate partner.”
A new paper published today in
Science describes advances from the Kyoto University iPS cell team, led by Shinya Yamanaka, facilitating production of pluipotent cells that are much less likely to form tumors than iPS cells created with previous methods.
A new paper released today from researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute offers data on the length of time cells must be exposed to reprogramming factors in order to induce the cells into behaving like stem cells. According to an email announcement from the HSCI, this allows scientists to “narrow the field of candidate chemicals and proteins that might be used to safely turn these processes on and off.”
The DOE Basic Energy Sciences program is forced to cut grants after a meager budget increase. Are iPS cells ready to replace embryonic stem cells? A new report in
Science on climate change and reduced global food production.
The phrase “stem cells” never made it into the State of the Union address—until last night, when the President implied that only policy makers, not scientists, can understand morality.
Bush exemption for Navy sonar use; farmer loses to Monsanto; SLAC loses to budget; Japan hikes budget for stem cell research; Supreme Court opening arguments for patent case.
A San Diego company has announced that it has been able to obtain embryo-like bodies by depositing the nucleus of a human skin cell into a human egg cell that has had its nucleus removed. The process is technically known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or, more simply, nuclear transfer, and popularly known as cloning.
Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology reports that it has grown embryonic stem cells from one cell of an 8-cell embryo left over in a fertility clinic and donated for research, without doing apparent harm to the remaining embryo. If the technique is successful the stem cell lines produced should qualify for federal research funding under President Bush’s policy.
New helmet sensors will improve army body armor; the disorganization of state stem cell initiatives; acute stress spikes after 9/11; think tanks for developing nations.
This history of the San Diego biotech cluster; stem cell grants in CA; simple wireless Internet access to low-income communities; DOE opens test reactor for university experiments.
A profile of Shinya Yamanaka; developing a malaria vaccine; providing an overdose antidote to heroin addicts; the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speeches.
Researchers recently cured sickle-cell anemia in a mouse model using iPS cells, highlighting the promise of iPS cells for future research and affirming the importance of preventing the current excitement about iPS cells from hastily ending embryonic stem cell research.
In the first demonstrated therapeutic application of induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers have cured sickle-cell anemia in mice. Rudolf Jaenisch, one of the authors of the paper announcing the work pointed out that this achievement means that research on human embryonic stem cells must go forward.
James A. Thomson and Alan I. Leshner issued a stinging response to those who would claim that the Bush administration’s stem cell policy encouraged the research that led to induced Pluripotent Cells; they call the work “a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions.”
“A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all.” Alan I. Leshner and James A. Thomson on the new advances in stem cell research, and other news and commentary from the mainstream press.
While pundits and bloggers argue over the political implications of recent breakthroughs in stem cell science, Kathryn Hinsch visits one of the first privately funded stem cell labs and learns that research must continue on all fronts: embryonic, IPS, placental, and adult.
The announcement that researchers can reprogram skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells is a triumph, but the discovery has implications beyond the creation of pluripotent cells.
Researchers working independently in Japan and the U.S. published papers this week announcing the creation of non-embryonic pluripotent stem cells. The method side-steps the ethical concerns over the destruction of embryos and could open the doors for federal funding of research on stem cells and the medical breakthroughs they promise.
Two dozen representatives from around the country met in Cambridge, MA last month to discuss interstate collaboration in stem cell research, highlighting the need for a systematic negotiation between states to allow collaboration and to unify the patchwork of currently existing regulations.
A team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, Oregon has succeeded in cloning twenty macaque monkey embryos. The techniques they used to achieve this monumental breakthrough in cloning work should also work for making human embryos. Could this breakthrough pave the way to a new source for embryonic stem cells?
Some bioethics and health policy wonks argue that state-based stem cell research initiatives stimulated by the Bush administration’s limits on federal funding show the virtues of federalism. But NJ voters rejected a $450 million bond issue for stem cell research, in spite of Gov. Jon Corzine’s support.
Two companies are about to become the first Embryonic Stem Cell biotech firms to draft FDA applications for human testing. For some time, ESC-research opponents have complained that human trials have involved therapies utilizing adult stem cells, but none have utilized embryonic stem cells.
The New Jersey appellate court cleared the way for a $450 million referendum funding stem cell research in the state. But how much will go to work with embryonic stem cells, and how much will go to the less-promising work with adult stem cells?
New Jersey boasts about its embryonic stem cell research ambitions, but most of the grant money is going toward adult stem cell research. What gives?
Cures Without Cloning, a Missouri group that opposes embryonic stem cell research, is trying to overturn the results of last year’s ballot initiative that protected stem cell research in the state. The CAP Bioethics Initiative posted an update last week. Here’s a roundup of the latest.
No new stem cell funding will be included in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (S.1710). Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) promptly offered an amendment removing language that he and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) had previously inserted to expand funding for stem cell research. There was no vote, only a removal.
In an interview with the magazine Medline Plus, NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni repeats his call for more embryonic stem cell research. While the Administration claims to agree, White House rhetoric seems to imply that scientists cannot make ethical decisions.
