Scientists Create Customized Stem Cells

[shawn703]

South Korean scientists have created the world's first human embryonic stem cells that are customized to injured or sick patients, a major step in the quest to grow patients' own replacement tissue to treat diseases.

These same scientists last year became the first to clone a human embryo, sparking international clamor. But those cloned stem cells -- the building blocks that give rise to every tissue in the body-- were a genetic match to a healthy woman, not a sick person. And it wasn't easy: It took 242 donated human eggs to grow just one batch.

Now the Seoul scientists have cloned patient-specific stem cells, important if doctors are to develop cell-based therapies that won't be rejected by the body's immune system. The technique worked with males and females, as young as 2 and as old as 56 -- all suffering either spinal cord injuries, diabetes or a genetic immune disease, the researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.


more...
http://www.heraldsun.com/nationworld/washington/15-608863.html

[420inTN]

1. Here's another story...

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-05-19T180903Z_01_N18306409_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-STEMCELLS-DC.XML">Reuter's story

excerpts:

"Their study fulfills one of the basic promises of using cloning technology in stem cell research -- that a piece of skin could be taken from a patient and used to grow the stem cells"

...

"This study shows that embryonic stem cells can be derived using nuclear transfer from patients with illness ... regardless of sex or age," Hwang told reporters in a telephone briefing.

...

"They also say their method may be less controversial than other work with embryonic stem cells because, by their definition, a human embryo was never actually created."

...

"I think this construct is not an embryo," he said. "There is no fertilization in our process. We use nuclear transfer technology. I can say this result is not an embryo but a nuclear transfer construct."

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And yet someone still ends up objecting

From the Reuter's story:

Opponents say all such work is unethical and should be banned because human life begins at conception and should not be destroyed.

fixed link

Despite the fact there's no conception involved, they still think they can object.

From the BBC story on this:

But Julia Millington, of the ProLife Alliance in the UK, said: "Cloning for research purposes, which involves the manufacture of human embryos destined for experimentation and subsequent destruction, is profoundly unethical.

"The manufacture and destruction of one cloned embryo is one too many, regardless of the number of eggs that are required.

"Experimentation upon human life at any stage of development has no place in a civilised society."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4555023.stm

Why is the reproduction of one human's DNA "profoundly unethical" when it happens in the lab, but fine when it happens in their body?

[Zhade]

2. Kick!

Kick

[Ian David]

3. Is there any way we can experiment on stem cells grown from Jerry Falwell?

Then we could convince him that little clones of himself are being murdered over and over and over...

Muhahahahaha!

Yeah, that's pretty sick, isn't it?

[DanCa]

5. Cmon cure

Thanks guys for posting this.*Double thumbs up* You have made my day. I hate young onset parkinsons and this news brings me great joy . At the same time I hate the fact that it looks like that am going to have to choose between getting a cure and staying in this country. Gawd I hate the Fristians.

[Ian David]

6. On the other hand, if we'd had this 10 years ago, the Pope would be alive

There are always positives and negatives to any technology.

[Coastie for Truth]

7. New York Times and CNN Stories (and Bush's Response)

South Korean researchers are reporting today that they have developed a highly efficient recipe for producing human embryos through cloning, and then extracting their stem cells.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers, led by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University, said they used their method to produce 11 human stem cell lines that were genetic matches of patients who ranged in age from 2 to 56.

The method, called therapeutic cloning, is one of the great hopes of the stem cell field. It produces stem cells, universal cells that are extracted from embryos, killing the embryos in the process, and that, in theory, can be directed to grow into any of the body's cell types.

Because the stem cells come from embryos that are clones of individuals, they would be exact genetic matches and less likely to be rejected by a patient's immune system. Scientists want to obtain such stem cells from patients with certain disorders and illnesses to study the origin of diseases and to develop replacement cells that would be identical to those a patient has lost in a disease like Parkinson's.

The principal researcher, Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, is reported by the New York Times as saying that he had no intention of using the method to produce babies that were clones. Dr. Hwang said:

"Our proposal is limited to finding a way to cure disease," he said. "That is our proposal and our research goal."

As usual, Richard Doerflinger, director of pro-life activities at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said: "Up until now, people were beginning to wonder whether human cloning for any purpose was feasible at all. This development makes it feasible enough to be a clear and present danger."

The House is expected to vote as early as next week on a measure that would expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell studies. The measure does not address therapeutic cloning. But a second bill, introduced by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and Representative Joe Schwarz, Republican of Michigan, would permit taxpayer financing of therapeutic cloning studies, while prohibiting cloning for reproduction.

and, as usual,

President Bush on Friday threatened to veto a bill (Castle-DeGette Bill) expanding public funding for embryonic stem cell research that could make it to his desk by early next week.

"I made very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, I'm against that," Bush told reporters. "Therefore if the bill does that, I will veto it."

It would mark the first veto of Bush's presidency.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/20/bush.stem.cells/index.html