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Archive for the ‘Stem Cell Research’ Category

Stunning discovery creates ethical stem cells

January 31st, 2014 Comments off
Immersing cells in acid creates pluripotent stem cells? Who could believe that? But it could be the future.

Michael Cook

It’s the ultimate confirmation of the notion that stress is good for you. A team of researchers from Japan and Boston have discovered that subjecting ordinary cells to stress will make them revert to a state in which they can make any cell in the body. It is an astonishingly simple door to the promise of personalised medicine which has obsessed scientists for the last 15 years. Read more…

Categories: ethics, Stem Cell Research Tags: ,

Not with a bang, but a whimper

June 4th, 2013 Comments off

by Michael Cook

After more than a decade of research on embryonic stem cells, scientists are quietly moving on to greener pastures.

Let’s wind the clock back to 2003. In January wheelchair-bound quadriplegic actor Christopher Reeve visited Australia to promote the legalisation of “therapeutic cloning”. This was absolutely necessary, he said, or patients would die needlessly. Scepticism about the potential of embryonic stem cells was utterly unwarranted. “That’s a myth,” he told his Australian audience. “That’s not true. Don’t let anyone tell you it is a pipedream.” Read more…

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Court won’t stop embryonic stem cell research

January 7th, 2013 Comments off

by Associated Press

The Supreme Court won’t stop the government’s funding of embryonic stem cell research, despite some researchers’ complaints that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from two scientists who have been challenging the funding for the work. Read more…

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Gurdon, Yamanaka win Nobel medicine prize

October 19th, 2012 Comments off

Money quote:

“Yamanaka showed that a surprisingly simple recipe could turn mature cells back into primitive cells, which in turn could be prodded into different kinds of mature cells.

Basically, the primitive cells were the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, which had been embroiled in controversy because to get human embryonic cells, human embryos had to be destroyed. Yamanaka’s method provided a way to get such primitive cells without destroying embryos.”

So, that should be the end of embryonic stem cell research, right?  (Hah!)

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Embryonic stem cell ‘success’ a lie

May 8th, 2012 Comments off

by Charlie Butts

Ophthalmologist Peter Francis has received permanent resident status in the U.S. on the basis of the country’s interest in clinical researchers. In 2002, while still in Britain, he won the National Research prize for “Best up and coming medical researcher in the U.K.,” and as of late, he has been working in Oregon on a pilot experiment funded by two federal grants. Read more…

Categories: ethics, Stem Cell Research Tags: ,

Dolly Scientist Says Abandon Embryonic Stem Cell Research

December 6th, 2011 Comments off

by Steven Ertelt

Ian Wilmut, the scientist who achieved international notoriety for cloning the sheep Dolly, is now urging his fellow scientists and researchers to abandon embryonic stem cell research. Read more…

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Non, je ne regrette rien

November 25th, 2011 Comments off

by Michael Cook

It is now all but certain that human embryonic stem cells will not deliver cures to dread diseases. Apologies, anyone?

Remember the slogan “ethics is playing catch-up with science”? It was one of the trusty clichés of science journalists in the heated debates five or six years ago over embryo research, “therapeutic cloning” and embryonic stem cells. Read more…

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Company Uses Cells From Abortions to Test Artificial Flavors

March 31st, 2011 Comments off

A pro-life group that monitors the use of cells from babies victimized by abortions is today highlighting a biotech company, Senomyx, which it says produces artificial flavor enhancers using aborted fetal cell lines to test their products.

How could this possibly be happening?!!!

I don’t even know what to say…

Categories: Abortion, ethics, morality, Stem Cell Research Tags: ,

Vatican funding Adult Stem Cell Research

April 27th, 2010 Comments off

The Anchoress points to this news in the Baltimore Sun:

With the financial backing of the Vatican, University of Maryland researchers will lead an international group of scientists to study adult stem cells from the intestines with the hope of discovering treatments for diseases while bypassing the ethical debates that have embroiled such research for a decade.
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This is not the first time the Roman Catholic Church has funded stem cell research, said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of pro-life activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Catholic dioceses in South Korea and Australia have supported adult stem cell research with grant money, he said.

“The Vatican has been very interested in adult stem cell research for many years,” he said. “I think it’s a logical outgrowth of the church’s interest in this field and of promoting ethically sound and beneficial stem cell research.”

As one of the scientists points out, Read more…

Categories: Catholic Church, ethics, Stem Cell Research Tags: , ,

Prospects rosy for adult stem-cell treatments

January 8th, 2010 Comments off

Okay, so if no cures have been made from embryonic stem cells, why is its use still debated? If there has been success with adult stem cells, as this article states, the problem is solved! Win-Win! It’s so simple, people.

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow –

The past decade spelled success in research with adult stem cells.

The one area in stem-cell research where there have been no successful treatments is research on human embryos, which involves killing a tiny human being. Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council tells OneNewsNow there has been progress in a related field, that of induced pluripotent stem cells that can be developed by taking, for example, skin cells and adding a few genes and reprogramming the cell so it looks and acts like an embryonic stem cell.

But the real success, says Prentice, has been with adult stem cells.

Continue reading.

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