LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE
Professor Doris Taylor, the "mother" of adult stem cell research, has pulled off her second miracle less than a decade after her first.
While at Duke University in 1998, she and her team fed young rats bad diets, causing heart disease, then she gave them stem cells from healthy young rats and the heart disease was substantially reduced. This led to worldwide animal studies in 1999, and, amazingly, human clinical trials in 2001 and 2002, which led to thousands of heart patients the world over now leading better and longer lives, thanks to the patients' own adult stem cells.
Now at University of Minnesota, her current team pulled off another miracle. Here is an interview from Canadian doctors working in the same field, which is making new tissue from adult stem cells, only THIS time, Prof. Taylor showed that and ENTIRE NEW HEART is possible and can someday replace the need for heart transplants. But before then, smaller items, such as heart valves and scar tissue will be possible.
"Canadian heart experts say new American research has brought us closer to a time when Star Trek-style replicators will be able to create human organs from thin air. Experts at the University of Minnesota have regrown a rat heart and brought it back to life, and Dr. Jason Dyck and Dr. John Mullen of the Mazankowski Heart Institute (Edmonton Canada) are calling it some of the most exciting news to hit the scientific world in years.
This new research means that one day we could grow a new human valve from the patient's own cells. It would last even longer and there would be essentially no risk of rejection."
He said re-cellularization research is 15 to 20 years away from clinical applications and is especially promising for transplants.
"The number of people who need heart transplants far exceeds the number of hearts available. The ultimate goal of this type of research would be to grow entirely new organs for people."
Until then, such research is more likely to foster smaller applications, such as making new tissue patches.
"You could see surgeons replacing scar tissue on an organ like the heart with actual cells that beat and grow into heart muscle tissue.
"The prospects are thrilling. We'll be keeping a close eye on the research."
Meanwhile, in the field of embryonics, the "miracle of the month" press release was the cloning of an embryonic executive. As with all embryonic miracles, it did nothing to bring treatments of diseased humans any closer, which some say is never.
DON MARGOLIS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dior use stem cell research for new XP creams
16/01/2008
This week's revelation is Christian Dior's new high-tech anti-ageing range. It's the result of years of stem cell research and is set to revolutionise skincare by actively repairing, rather than simply preventing, the appearance of wrinkles.
To help us achieve younger-looking skin in 2008, researchers at Dior's Innovation Centre used the latest techncologocal advances to isolate the reconstructive properties of stem cells, the cells used to repair damaged skin, and use them to repair skin and remove wrinkles from the inside.
To activate and protect the stem cells' magic, the range contains a Stemsome system to target all levels of the skin's epidermis. On the surface, Bi-Skin smoothens out the wrinkle, TP-Vityl re-starts cell activity, and Bionectine strengthens the structure of the tissue underneath the wrinkle. The range is new for January 2008 but is already earning rave reviews for its impressive results.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Adult Stem-Cell Therapy Could Treat Radiation Sickness
The U.S. Department of Defense is working with two biotech firms to develop a treatment for radiation sickness using adult stem cells extracted from the bone marrow of healthy adult donors, New Science magazine reported.
High doses of radiation can be lethal. The experimental stem-cell therapy is intended to repair the damage, which could save U.S. military soldiers if there is a nuclear explosion or radiological attack.
"The fact that the Department of Defense is seeking to use adult stem cells as a way to treat radiation sickness demonstrates the ever-increasing benefit of adult stem cells to help patients,‚ said Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit the Focus on Social Issues Web site.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Uni breaks new stem cell ground
By Phil Fleming
SCIENTISTS from Lancaster University are at the forefront of ground-breaking research into human stem cells which could hold the key to treatments for cancer and other serious diseases.
The department of biological sciences is leading an international team which has successfully located stem cells in the gastro-intestinal tract.
Research carried out at the Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington has examined the chemical fingerprints' of individual cells using an intense light facility known as the Synchrotron.
The university's Dr Frank Martin says: "This is a powerful development, building significantly on our current understanding of human stem cells, particularly on how we can locate them in the body and how they behave.
"This same technique could be now be used in other parts of the body where the location of stems cells remains unclear and has enormous potential for research into life threatening illnesses or serious injury to the body."
The full paper on this research is published in the January issue of Stem Cells.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once again...to quote from ‚“STEM CELL STORY OF THE YEAR: 2007?
‚“You see, I look at embryonic stem cells from one perspective only: ‚“Does this advance in knowledge bring the treatment of incurable diseases by implanting embryonic stem cells one step closer to mankind.‚ In this case, the answer is a resounding ‚“NO!‚ ‚“
I feel the same way about this news. Much ado about (almost) nothing.
Don Margolis
Founder, SAIL NOW! Save And Improve Lives NOW!
with adult stem cells
------------------------------------------
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/stem-cell-break.html
Stem Cell Breakthrough, Sort Of
By Brandon Keim January 17, 2008 | 2:26:33
In a study published today in the journal Stem Cells, scientists made embryonic clones of two men.
Not to be a cynical, but what's the big deal?
The procedure, in which researchers from stem cell company Stemagen removed nuclei from the skin cells of two adult men and put them inside a fertilized and emptied-out egg, is already known to scientists and the public. It's the first step of cloning -- either therapeutic cloning, in which embryos provide stem cells for potential medical use, or reproductive cloning, in which embryos grow into a new person.
Both therapeutic and reproductive cloning are still in their early stages -- the latter because it's globally abhorred, the former because it's scientifically tricky. If scientists can figure out how to make viable embryonic stem cells from a clone, the human race would be a lot closer to personalized stem cell treatments, with new limbs and disease cures promised to anyone with a few spare skin flakes and enough money to foot the bill.
But this hasn't yet been done. Korean scientist Woo-Suk Hwang excited the world when he claimed to have pulled it off, but he was lying. Though Stemagen said their cloned embryos could be used to make stem cells, they didn't actually try.
On the plus side, unlike earlier cloners, Stemagen made their clones with skin cells from an adult rather than embryonic stem cells or cells from ovaries. If Stemagen's clones do turn out to be a viable source for stem cells, the procedure will be relatively practical. But that's a frontier-sized "if" -- and so long as it's unresolved, this study really doesn't deserve the sort of wall-to-wall coverage it received today.
Indeed, science journalists seem to know this. Witness the lead quote from the Associated Press story:
"I found it difficult to determine what was substantially new," said Doug Melton of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He said the "next big advance will be to create a human embryonic stem cell line" from cloned embryos. "This has yet to be achieved."
Melton also told The Scientist that "it would be hard to call this a major advance."
So why the coverage? Well, it's a stem cell story and there's cloning involved. Those are hot words in any season, and especially lately, with advances in other stem cell techniques (here and here) whetting public appetite for news of potentially miraculous biotechnologies. It's also hard for journalists to tell their editor, "Everyone's going to cover this, but it's not a big deal."
Neither does it help that scientists want to wash away the legacy of Woo-Suk Hwang, whose fraud jaded millions. But over-reporting an advance that could still fall short makes another disillusionment more likely.
Update: Reuters headlined their story, "U.S. company claims cloned humans and made stem cells." The lead notes that Stemagen made its clones in the "eventual hope of making matched stem cells for patients," but the writer -- who almost certainly didn't pick the headline, and thus didn't realize she'd have to correct for a false assertion -- never specifically says that stem cells weren't made.
Update Two: Rick Weiss at the Washington Post looked at this in terms of stem cells rather than cloning; from that perspective, he said, the study was significant, for it shows that few technical barriers remain to full human cloning.
Rick Weiss has long been America's chief fact-twister-in-charge for the embryonic fanatics. Everything he ever writes on stem cells should be classified as "promotion," certainly not "news."-Don Margolis
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________