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Amazing ! Stem Cells Made Easy ! »
Posted by: RickyDawkins 2 years, 5 months ago"Neither eggs nor embryos are necessary. I've never worked with either," says Yamanaka. Whereas cloning with humans was limited by the number of available eggs and by a tricky technique that takes some six months to master, Yamanaka's method can use the most basic cells and can be accomplished with simple lab techniques.
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RickyDawkins
Atheism can be either the rejection of theism, or the position that deities do not exist. In the broadest sense, it is the absence of ...
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Comments: 20
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Twistoflex
June 8, 2007, 10:48 a.m.This is interesting, but it would be good to see a deeper examination of the limitations of this material vis a vis embryonic stem cells.
Nonetheless, you can bet that even this technique will rouse the angst of Bible thumpers.
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deathray
June 8, 2007, 10:57 a.m.My understanding is that in order to determine the genes required to switch on the "stem cell activation" in mice, mouse embyos were required, and that in order to find the same genes in humans, human embryos will be required as well.
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RickyDawkins
June 8, 2007, 11:09 a.m.I was hoping this would end the controversy (yeah, right). Of course, this is only a piece of the puzzle. It opens a whole bunch of new opportunities though.
"For me it's like Dolly [the first cloned mammal]. It's that type of accomplishment."
If it works, researchers could produce iPS cells from patients with conditions such as Parkinson's disease or diabetes and observe the molecular changes in the cells as they develop. This 'disease in a dish' would offer the chance to see how different environmental factors contribute to the condition, and to test the ability of drugs to check disease progression.
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Helixbuilder
June 8, 2007, 11:09 a.m.Hmmm this is real interesting for several reasons all dealing with epigenetics!!
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Radiofreeeuropa
June 8, 2007, 1 p.m.Fascinating, but it stands to reason, since cells are "programed", they have the potential to be any other type of cell. The secret lies in the "programming". I think there may be less controversy about this technique as even the bible thumpers want to be cured and I suspect do understand that there's nasty diseases that faith isn't particularly effective against.
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swasdiva
June 8, 2007, 3:12 p.m.What an amazing advancement. I think, ethically, this is very encouraging, even with one of the scientists stressing that "research into embryonic stem cells made by cloning remains "absolutely essential"."
Scientific research is a delicate subject when it concerns experimenting with human life at any stage. To be honest, I'm torn about my opinion. One could pose that embryos aren't viable on their own, and if not implanted would die regardless of experimentation. But they have the potential to be viable, whereas skin cells don't, at least not as a sentient being.
Although this got me thinking...using another type of cell with this procedure to create an iPS cell, a mock-embryo I guess...would this create a mutant race of giant organs? I mean, could you imagine...a liver running for president (upgrade?). So much for the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. How the hell do you miss a giant spleen in boot camp?
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Macondo
June 8, 2007, 3:27 p.m.It sounds like one step forward.
Although Yamanaka said "It's easy. There's no trick, no magic."
It does not sound this easy while you consider the complex selection of a low yield of recovery of pluripotential cells after destruction of the rest of them.
If the results are reproducible by other scientists I hope it will be practical and cost efficient.
I do not want to sound pessimistic but many technical advances already here, are not feasible due to cost limits.
Resolving the teratomatous potential is mandatory.
In short: Great step forward probably years away from practical utilization.
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UBCONFUSE
June 9, 2007, 9:10 a.m.I think this falls into the same category as moonshine whiskey filtered through a lead core radiator for distillation. The end result looks like, smells like and maybe taste like whiskey, but drinking the stuff has serious side effects of the lethal variety.
Science needs the real deal, an embryonic cell which has not yet morphed into a body part. If these cells could be found in sperm, nobody would have a single problem with the source. Add the word fetus and all hell breaks loose.
For PC reasons, stem cell research will leave the USA and so will the top scientist. Give this 10 years and the wow factor is going to be extreme.
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Sideways_28
June 9, 2007, 9:35 a.m.As one of "those" bible thumpers this is very interesting. Here is what i think, use the cord blood to gain your emb.stem cells and find out the way to make this work. And in the short term, if i were facing some terminal thing, then i would take the chance on the 20% chance of the cancer and use this. sounds much better than alzheimers or death from liver shut down. I just can't and would not support the destruction of the unborn to save another, even my own, period. And who is to say that when they find the answer to fix the problem in the mice they will even need human stem cell.
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