More from yesterdays news regarding patient specific stem cells via BBC news. Read the article here.
Stem Cells
Patient specific stem cell first @ BBC News
South Korean scientists say they have made stem cells tailored to match the individual for the first time. Each of the 11 new stem cell lines that they made were created by taking genetic material from the patient and putting it into a donated egg. The resultant cells were a perfect match for the individual…
Making cells to cure blood disease @ IHT
Very good article by Gareth Cook at the International Herald Tribune talking about Children’s Hospital Boston plans to clone human cells. Consider the case of a boy with sickle cell anemia, a potentially lethal disease in which a genetic defect causes red blood cells to form improperly. The scientists envision taking a skin cell from…
Concern over cord blood banking @ BBC News
The BBC is looking at the issues surrounding storing or banking cord blood. The blood is a rich source of stem cells, which may one day be used to treat diseases such as leukaemia. Private companies offer a banking service for concerned parents. But doctors have voiced concern about playing on parents fears, and the…
The book
I’m writing a book! Paulina remembers more things than I do, she has a better memory(among lots of other things). I constantly go to Paulina with questions looking for more details so when I say ‘I” it really means ‘We’. I (we) started to write formally around February 23rd. 2005 after Andy’s last hospitalization. I…
Charlie Article @ The Guardian
I read about Charlie @ BBC on July 27th, 2004. At that time he was around day 25 after transplant. Today, three months later, The Guardian reports “Boy cured by ‘designer baby’ cells”. A six-year-old boy has been cured of a rare blood disorder after receiving blood cells from a baby brother born to save…
Celebrities and stem cells
Christopher Reeve: “For the true biological miracles that researchers have only begun to foresee, medical science must turn to undifferentiated stem cells,” “We need to clear the path for them as rapidly as possible.” Reeve told a United States Senate hearing in 2000 on federal funding for stem-cell research. Nancy Reagan: “Science has presented us…
Umbilical cord banks
A definition for umbilical cord banks: It’s a warehouse for suspended hope
Cloning article @ Boston Globe
Harvard teams want OK to clone Human-cell work would be first in nation By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff | October 13, 2004 Two separate teams of Harvard scientists are preparing to produce cloned embryos for disease research, and one has officially applied for permission from the university’s ethical review board. .. The team at Children’s…
Article about Harvard team and Cloning @ Wired
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Harvard University scientists have asked the university’s ethical review board for permission to produce cloned human embryos for disease research, potentially becoming the first researchers in the nation to wade into a divisive area of study that has become a presidential campaign issue. “We want to find new ways to study and…