"Stunning" Adult Stem Cell Success
When the MSM declares an adult stem cell success "stunning," as the Washington Post headline does, you know it is a new day. In mice, scientists were able to transform adult cells into stem cells--from within the body! From the story: Scientists have transformed one type of fully developed adult cell directly into another inside a living animal, a startling advance that could lead to cures for a plethora of illnesses and sidestep the political and ethical quagmires that have plagued embryonic stem cell research.
There is a long way to go before this can be used in humans, if ever. But my, how the world has changed from less than a year ago. ESCR has lost its political potency as an issue. The newest and most hopeful areas of advancement are coming from morally uncontentious areas of biotechnology. The drive to push human cloning has been staggered by IPSCs.
Through a series of painstaking experiments involving mice, the Harvard biologists pinpointed three crucial molecular switches that, when flipped, completely convert a common cell in the pancreas into the more precious insulin-producing ones that diabetics need to survive.
The feat, published online today by the journal Nature, raises the tantalizing prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes but also heart disease, strokes and many other ailments could eventually have some of their cells reprogrammed to cure their afflictions without the need for drugs, transplants or other therapies.
Perhaps we will be able to have everything that scientists wanted from ESCRs, without the moral baggage. And you know what: I believe that some people would be extremely unhappy about that because they saw this field of scientific inquiry as a way not only to improve health care, but also to change the culture in a less sanctity of life direction. Looks now like that might not happen.
And for our friends in the animal rights movement: One more proof of the efficacy of using animals in research.
Labels: Adult Stem Cells. Transforming Differentiated Cells into Stem Cells.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:37 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
"And for our friends in the animal rights movement: One more proof of the efficacy of using animals in research."
Ha! But I'm sure the typical ARA doesn't care. You have to hold humans in a low esteem to be opposed to breakthroughs like this anyhow.
This is wonderful news.
My husband's former boss's son developed type 1 diabetes when he was a preschooler. At age 5 or so they were standing in line to buy something at a pharmacy when little David asked to speak to the pharmacist. He asked her if she had anything to help his diabetes. I imagine he was tired of the finger sticks and the shots. The pharmacist didn't know what to say but a woman standing in line behind the family leaned forward to tell David that she worked for a biomedical company that was involved in research to cure diabetes and that she expected that to happen in his lifetime. This disease is getting a well-deserved full-court press. I believe the cure is coming.
This is good news but it still is journalistic incompetence if not malice toward opponents of embryonic stem cell research.
"The work was hailed as a welcome development even by critics of research involving embryonic stem cells..."
What??? Welcome "even by critics" of ESCR? Where has the author Rob Stein been the last 8 years?
That paragraph should read "The work was hailed as a welcome development EVEN BY PROPONENTS AND SUPPORTERS of research involving embryonic stem cells... MANY IF NOT MOST OF WHOM HAVE CRITICIZED, DOUBTED AND MALIGNED THE CAPABILITY OF NON-ESCR."
It was opponents of ESCR who said that non-ESCR had great potential and was producing positive results. It was proponents of ESCR who said that if non-ESCR had any potential, it was limited and that the reported success listed and pointed to by “…(David) Prentice and those who repeat his claims mislead laypeople and cruelly deceive patients.”
That paragraph also makes it look like ESCR opponents are anti-science and oppose all stem cell research.
Then the story says, "Researchers in the field, who have become accustomed to rapid advances, said they, too, were surprised by the advance." This implies that the rapid advances have been in embryonic stem cell research, not non-ESCR.
Where do they get these people to report to the nation?
I believe that some people would be extremely unhappy about that because they saw this field of scientific inquiry as a way not only to improve health care, but also to change the culture in a less sanctity of life direction.
Who would these people be?
Just as I've stated the pro-life crowd manipulated ASCr against ESCr to advance their agenda, I would say the same is equally improper for anyone trying to expliot ESCr to advance the pro-choice movement. But I can't recall any specific examples of this subversive motives.
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