Lead Into Gold: IPSCs Made from Cell of Patient With ALS
One of benefits of human cloning, we were told, would be the ability to clone someone with a disease like ALS (Lou Gehrig's in America, motor neurone disease in the UK and elsewhere), to obtain stem cells from the embryo for disease study. Indeed, before he decided to abandon cloning in favor of iPSCs, that is precisely what Ian Wilmut had a license to do in the UK.
Well, so far no human cloned embryonic stem cells have been derived despite years of trying. But in less than one year since the first iPSC human line was created, that precise achievement has already been accomplished. From the Harvard-Columbia press release: Harvard and Columbia scientists have for the first time used a new technique to transform an ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease) patient's skin cells into motor neurons, a process that may be used in the future to create tailor-made cells to treat the debilitating disease. The research--led by Kevin Eggan, Ph.D. of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute--will be published July 31 in the online version of the journal Science.
This is the first time that skin cells from a chronically-ill patient have been reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state, and then coaxed into the specific cell types that would be needed to understand and treat the disease.
Though cell replacement therapies are probably still years away, the new cells will solve a problem that has hindered ALS research for years: the inability to study a patient's motor neurons in the laboratory.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 1:20 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
This has to be a shock to Harry Reid who so opposed the Bush policy that he accused the president of "putting politics ahead of safe, responsible science;" said the veto was a "most un-American thing by turning his back on science;" that Bush was "putting the politics of his narrow ideology ahead of saving lives;" had decided that curing diseases "was not as important as catering to his right-wing base;" vetoed the bill "with the health and hope of millions of Americans hanging in the balance," and said "our best scientists continue to work with one hand tied behind their back."
It has to surprise Congressman Edward Markey who said the veto of the bill overturning the Bush policy would "be remembered as a Luddite moment in American history."
There were politicians all over the nation standing with people who could benefit from regenerative medicine, condemming Bush for his stand. Where are those politicians today when something has come along to take the place of ESCR but has no political value? That speaks volumes. Maybe they are making sure that sufferers at the pump are properly inflating their tires and getting regular engine tune ups.
"Harvard and Columbia scientists have for the first time used a new technique to transform an ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease) patient's skin cells into motor neurons, "
An amazing achievement.
Wesley, I'm glad to hear you say that , it is a step in the right direction for both sides.
You lose it right when you start touting the humanitarian heroics of George Bush's bone throwing. Give credit where its due - the scientists who figured out ESC functionality in a hostile environment caused by people like you and GWB.
What you fail to address here is that Eggan has been doing research on Embryonic stem cells for years, and it is this knowledge gained from ESCr that lead to this discovery. Eggan is among the leading ESCr and cloning researchers in the world.
From Eggans primary lab page at Harvard -
"nuclear transfer (SCNT) experiments have demonstrated that the mammalian egg can relieve the constraints imposed by cellular differentiation and return the nucleus of an adult cell to a totipotent embryonic state. This process has been termed nuclear reprogramming. The primary research focus of our group is to understand the mechanisms by which reprogramming occurs...we are using nuclear transfer and other approaches to develop human embryonic stem cell lines that carry the genes responsible for human neurodegenerative disease. It is our hope that these cell lines will provide valuable model systems for the in vitro study of these diseases."
This is what I've been telling you for a long time and you refuse to listener acknowledge, but no prob, I want your reader to see the truth.
If you had your way from the start this advancement never would have happened. Why? because scientist like eggan wouldn't understand how a ES cell functions and how to reprogram those cells.
Thanks to ESCr that knowledge was gained and is being used in a meaningful way.
The same reasons why ESCr should continue now and in the future. Once "Scientists" NOT "Ethicists" have determined that iPSC can offer the same level of cellular integrity for research then ESCr can be halted for most labs. But should be up to guys like Eggan, not guys like you and I to make these determinations.
DS,
This is a moral argument and ESCR opponents aren't throwing down their morals to highly skilled biological technicians. Scientists don't have an inalienable right to do what they want with human life no matter how white their lab coats are or how many letters they've managed to string behind their names. Your arguments assume that human beings at the embryonic stage are expendable without having proved that they are and that we should not be afraid to go farther with embryo killing. ESCR should be stopped for the same reasons now as before iPSCs, it instrumentalizes human life and it degrades the sanctity of life, threatens all of us and kills human beings.
ESCR should be stopped for the same reasons now as before iPSCs,
iPSC was discovered as a result of ESCr. Your exclusion of pluripotent cells from research would have lead to little discovery of how cellular systems work. Your kind are stuck in 20th century medicine.
I understand you are incapable of accepting this fact. Not my problem.
Instrumentalization
W.Smith: "Think of it: no women's health endangered from egg extraction, no instrumentalization of human life, few brave new world worries. A true win-win."
I suppose, then, that you have a huge problem with the fact that IVF has resulted in the destruction of countless hundreds of thousands of human embryos, whic is still a (legal) part and parcel of modern infertility treatments? Where's the noise from the Right on this issue? Apart from Bush's lip service for an embryo adoption program, why hasn't the Right pushed for strict regulation or even the abolition of IVF clinics on the basis that they routinely discard "life" on a daily basis? Isn't this abortion simply under another guise?
DS,
Who cares what century we are in? Its wrong instrumentalize human life, to treat it like a commodity and to kill innocent human life no matter what period of time we are in. Scientists don't have an inalienable right to do what they want with human life no matter how white their lab coats are or how many letters they've managed to string behind their names. Your arguments assume that human beings at the embryonic stage are expendable without having proved that they are and that we should not be afraid to go farther with embryo killing. ESCR should be stopped for the same reasons now as before iPSCs, it instrumentalizes human life and it degrades the sanctity of life, threatens all of us and kills human beings.
Don: Do you support the right of IVF clinics to create multiple viable embryos, only to discard or freeze the unneeded ones (which eventually degrade and become unimplantable)? That's been happening for decades with nary a peep from the conservative crowd, who with American liberals alike, have greatly appreciated this technology to overcome their infertility issues.
Let's be realistic. Whether America leads or follows in the development of embryonic stem-cell derived therapies, there is little doubt that Americans will quickly become one of their largest and most voracious consumers. Be that as it may, individuals will always have the right to abstain from any technology they perceive to have been immorally derived. Further, they can pledge to abstain from ever approving such medical technologies for their dependent loved ones, as well; nothing stoppping them. The real question is: will they?
Well Don then you should NEVER receive any type of gene therapy for you or your loved ones as the origin of its knowledge and applications lie in unlocking secrets of pluripotency that origniated from studying EMBRYOS!
Oh maybe you'll rationalize iPSC while deceiving to yourself about its potential to create the same life as an embyro, while ignoring the fact that it was not possible to discover iPSC without the study of Embryonic Stem Cells.
Try leeching instead.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home