[Fyzbo]

Originally Posted by Knotbored

Is it fair to suggest that none of the several breakthroughs mentioned here would have been investigated if aborted fetuses financed by federal funds were easily available to these researchers?

Then it's also fair to suggest that had investigating aborted fetuses been financed by federal funds scientists wouldn't have to waste time with breakthroughs on stem cell sources and instead had breakthroughs on curing illnesses. So instead of a cure for parkinsons we get a new source of stem cells.

[lotuseclat79]

Bone formation from embryonic stem cells.

Jojanneke Jukes of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, has succeeded in growing bone tissue with the help of embryonic stem cells for the first time.


From left to right, you can see the carrier material (greyish in colour) and the cartilage tissue (light pink) on which bone (dark pink) is being formed.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Scientists make cells that form eggs and sperm in lab.

U.S. researchers have found a way to coax human embryonic stem cells to turn into the types of cells that make eggs and sperm, shedding light on a stage of early human development that has not been fully understood.


A doctor at the Alma Res fertility clinic in Rome works prepares eggs and sperm for an attempt at artificial insemination in this file photo from June 7, 2005. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Stem-cell treatment helps restore eye-sight.

Six blind patients have had their eye-sight restored after undergoing pioneering stem cell transplants.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

New Stem Cell Lines Eligible for Federal Funding.

For hundreds of scientists, embryonic stem cell research takes a step into the present.

-- Tom

[Knotbored]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

New Stem Cell Lines Eligible for Federal Funding.

For hundreds of scientists, embryonic stem cell research takes a step into the present.

-- Tom

Is the article significant or just the shouting over that obtuse headline? A few quotes from the article clarify it somewhat:

"In the last eight years, hundreds of embryonic stem cell lines have been derived using non-federal funds, many of them carrying more favorable characteristics."
"Eleven of the 13 new lines were generated in George Daley's lab at Children's Hospital, in Boston, which used private funding to make them. "
" Researchers still cannot derive new lines using federal funds--creating new lines requires the destruction of an embryo."

It seems to me that little changed other then throwing more money to laboratories that are likely to amass huge profits from federally financed research. Those same labs are often criticized for their profits-nothing changes.

[lotuseclat79]

NIH stem cell guidelines should be modified, UCSF team reports.

A UCSF team, led by bioethicist Bernard Lo, MD, recommends that the National Institutes of Health ethics guidelines for embryonic stem cell research be modified to better protect the rights of individuals donating egg or sperm to patients undergoing in vitro fertilization.

-- Tom

[Fyzbo]

Originally Posted by Knotbored

Is the article significant or just the shouting over that obtuse headline? A few quotes from the article clarify it somewhat:

"In the last eight years, hundreds of embryonic stem cell lines have been derived using non-federal funds, many of them carrying more favorable characteristics."
"Eleven of the 13 new lines were generated in George Daley's lab at Children's Hospital, in Boston, which used private funding to make them. "
" Researchers still cannot derive new lines using federal funds--creating new lines requires the destruction of an embryo."

It seems to me that little changed other then throwing more money to laboratories that are likely to amass huge profits from federally financed research. Those same labs are often criticized for their profits-nothing changes.

Really it's just consistency. Now government funded research is on the same level as privately funded research. I agree though, the best approach is to get rid of all government funded research.

[lotuseclat79]

Stem-Cell Tourism: Adventures at the Fringes of Experimental Medicine (6 web pages).

Droves of patients are heading overseas for stem-cell therapies unavailable in the U.S. Is it a dangerous scam -- or is America just behind the curve?

Or is Big Phama colluding with the FDA?

Interesting story!

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

A New Way to Make Stem Cells.

Using RNA instead of DNA could avoid the health risks--and the political pitfalls--of stem-cell treatments.

A Harvard researcher has developed a way to make pluripotent stem cells that solves several of the major impediments to using them to treat human diseases.


New cell: A microscope image shows liver cell created from a stem cell by researcher Derrick Rossi.
Credit: Phil Manos, Cell Press

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Researchers engineer adult stem cells that do not age.

Biomedical researchers at the University at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that scientists can grow continuously in culture, a discovery that could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Most Americans Back Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Poll.

Americans overwhelmingly support embryonic stem cell research, and that backing stretches across a broad range of demographic groups, including Republicans, Catholics and born-again Christians, according to a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll.

Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of the adults surveyed believe that scientists should be allowed to use embryonic stem cells left over from in vitro fertilization procedures to search for potential treatments or ways to prevent diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes and other conditions.

Only 12 percent oppose using stem cells for biomedical research, numbers that mirror those from a similar poll conducted in 2005.

-- Tom

[Brigham]

I think stem cell research is a good thing.That is my contribution to this thread. However could somebody tell me why Americans are always slagging off Canadians, and vice versa. I have been to the USA several times and Canada once, but everyone I met in both countries were delightful, and enormously hospitable.

[lotuseclat79]

Maybe it has something to do with the phrasing of words - Canadians pronounce the word out as "oot", i.e. rhymes with shoot, Americans just say "out", i.e. rhymes with shout - or, rather Canadians would not know the difference between shoot and shout! Gee, I took the bait on that one, eh woot? No harm to Canadians intended. Maybe Jim, aka pyritechips (Canadian) would like to weigh in on the issue, eh Jim? Different perspectives are always enlightening, eh?

-- Tom

[pyritechips]

I'd weigh in - if I knew what was being discussed. I hope you understand what I'm typing since I have a Canadian keyboard.