The Stems
Yet another big change from the Bush administration:
In a watershed moment for one of the most contentious areas of science and American politics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the first-ever human trial of a medical treatment derived from embryonic stem cells.
Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif., biotechnology company, is expected to announce Friday that it received a green light from the agency to mount a study of its stem-cell treatment for spinal cord injuries in up to 10 patients. The announcement caps more than a decade of advances in the company’s labs and comes on the cusp of a widely expected shift in U.S. policy toward support of embryonic stem-cell research after years of official opposition.
“This is the dawn of a new era in medical therapeutics,” said Thomas B. Okarma, Geron’s president and chief executive officer. The hope that stem-cell therapy will repair and regenerate diseased organs and tissue “goes beyond what pills and scalpels can ever do.”
For the record, this is what embryonic stem cells are. This is a huge development for researchers and, IMO, a positive one.
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Private companies won’t fund the basic science that leads to these trials. They’ll fund the trials themselves, because they’re close to a therapeutic return on investment. The underlying basic science almost never gets private funding, which is why government funding is so important.
Waht pisses me off is that both sides wont budge a fucking bit.
The Science side, seem to be determined ONLY to use stem cells from fetuses, the religious side seem to think that only stem cells can come from fetuses.
The fact is, Stem cells can come from MANY many sources. the fundis need to realize this and the science side just needs to admit the new sources and use them.
The Science side, seem to be determined ONLY to use stem cells from fetuses
That’s not true - scientists are doing research on any stem cells they can find. Adult, embryonic, animal, starfish, whatever they can get their hands on.
maybe i didnt make my self clear.That’s not true - scientists are doing research on any stem cells they can find. Adult, embryonic, animal, starfish, whatever they can get their hands on.
they SEEM to be determined to use ONLY to use stem cells from fetuses.
I know that stem cells can be obtained from other sources, and are used However the political bullshit many of these scientists are engaged in seems to drown out the fact that stem cells are obtianed form other sources.
they could defuse the entire situation with a broad based pledge not to use fetuses in stem cell research.
I believe that 90% of the debate is the scientists just wanting to keep the debate in the public eye for funds and piss off the religious community, just for the hell of it.
this whole debate is more about politics and money, than science.
I just saw a report about how Stem cells can be drawn from bone marrow faster and better than than any fetal material can be extracted.
The fucking fundis are just being reactionary and not keeping up with new research.....
The fact is, Stem cells can come from MANY many sources. the fundis need to realize this and the science side just needs to admit the new sources and use them.
The problem, though, is that stem cells from other sources (adult stem cells, for example), simply don’t work as well for these uses as embryonic ones do. The embryonic cells are easier to “reprogram” and use for a variety of situations. There are companies that are working to resolve this issue, and genetically modify adult stem cells so that they can be used in place of embryonic (rendering the whole discussion moot), but the results aren’t there yet.
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What’s the big change? The only thing the Bush administration did was prohibit the Federal funding of that. They could always get the money for research from the private sector.