Big decision: A federal law banning compensation for organ transplants doesn’t extend to bone marrow harvested from a donor’s blood, a federal appeals court said Thursday in a ruling that could attract thousands of new donors in a national campaign to save the lives of those afflicted with cancer and genetic disorders. In the last …
Stem Cells, Again
Sullivan: Upon close reading, it really does seem as if the basic moral quandary in stem-cell research has now been overcome. That moral quandary was real, and it is a mark of a certain non-religious fundamentalism that some enthusiasts for the research refused to acknowledge that the objections were indeed serious. But we’re facing another …
Skin Cells To Stem Cells
Cool. Scientists have managed to reprogram human skin cells directly into cells that look and act like embryonic stem (ES) cells. The technique makes it possible to generate patient-specific stem cells to study or treat disease without using embryos or oocytes–and therefore could bypass the ethical debates that have plagued the field. “This is like …
Stem Cells Without Embryos?
In the latest Nature, a group of scientists at Kyoto University claims to have made true embryonic stem cells out of ordinary adult cells by switching off four genes. In theory, embryonic stem cells can propagate themselves indefinitely and are able to become any type of cell in the body. But so far, the only …
More on Stem Cells
Science moves on: In the five years since President Bush authorized and at the same time restricted research on human embryonic stem cells, a marked shift has taken place in some scientists’ views of how the research is likely to benefit medicine. Many no longer see cell therapy as the first goal of the research, …
More On Stem Cells
It appears White House Science Advisor Karl Rove may have been a little fast and loose with the facts regarding stem cell research: When White House political adviser Karl Rove signaled last week that President Bush planned to veto the stem cell bill being considered by the Senate, the reasons he gave went beyond the …
Stem Cells And Cancer
One thing that people should take away from our ongoing coverage of the stem cell issue is the amazing degree to which every other field of medicine potentially stands to gain from progress in stem cell research (more here). Today’s NY Times again underlines the point with a story looking at how stem cells may …