yet another advancement in stem cell research. This one is pretty huge

[blankall]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7101834.stm.

Could allow anybody to easily contribute stem cells for their own body.

[AC]

Really just amazing. They managed to generate pluripotent stem cells too.

[Hemi-Cuda]

After 12 days in the laboratory clumps of cells grown to mimic heart muscle tissue started beating.

wow

[Table 5]

Crucially, it could mean that such research is no longer dependent on using cells from human embryos, which has proved highly controversial.

Good news. Hopefully this will disuage a lot of the right-wingers against abortion from impeding medical progress.

[Canada 02]

Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "News that embryonic stem cells can be created successfully from human cells without cloning, without using human embryos or human eggs, or without getting involved in the creation of animal-human embryos, is most warmly welcomed.

"We congratulate these world-class scientists who have had the courage to state their change of tack so cogently.

"For once we have better science coinciding with better ethics."

dear lord ... as if this is the first time scientific research has been performed in an ethical manner

I suspect this idiot didn't read, nor would be able to understand the research data that was published. If he did read it (and could comprehend it) he might have noticed that the normal skin cells were "transformed" into stem cells using 4 oncogenes. I use the word "transformed" because to a cancer biologist, "transformed" means cancer. The procedure used in this study is the same procedure that Weinberg used to "transform" normal skin cells into cancer cells.

In fact, these "stem cells" form teratomas, and 20% of the chimeric mice derived from these "stem cells" get cancer. I'd bet my bottom dollar this number would be closer to 100% if they extended the end-point of their study a few weeks.

This is not a criticism of the research. The authors basically say the same thing I just did in their discussion. Unfortunately, the BBC gave this guy a voice and it's going to skew public perception. This is not a replacement for embryonic stem cells. With years/decades of research, adult cells may be converted into embryonic-like stem cells without being tumorigenic; or they could just use actual embryonic stem cells now.

[AC]

Off to a good start in terms of religious issues with these techniques
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n3525924.shtml

"All the Catholic scientists and ethicists at the conference...had no moral problem with it at all," he said.

[alltherage]

^^Wow, and what did I say in that thread about stem cells from menstral fluids a few days ago!?

They aren't messing with life from conception, ie embrios, so of course it's all good with Catholics. We aren't just there to disrupt scientific advancement, every Catholic stance is formed through research- many people just jump to conclusions without finding out why Catholics are against certain things, and not enough people ask where these standpoints are formed from. Many people think they know why Catholics are against certain things, and form opinions about Catholic doctrines. It's really frustrating.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance;
it is the illusion of knowledge.

-Daniel J. Boorstin

Unless in some way Human Life is killed or disrespected by this science, I don't see Catholics having issues. That said, I haven't done enough research to know enough about it. Looks good so far!