From: Brett Paatsch (bpaatsch@bigpond.net.au)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 09:37:13 MDT
Extropes,
This is a *good* thing!
STEM CELLS: Scientists Create Britain's First Stem Cell Line
(link below)
Reason. 1. The UK which (now) has the worlds most liberal
stem cells laws (excepting perhaps China and those that don't
really have laws) but was not as advanced as other places
(like the US and Australia) has now caught up (or imo) even
passed the high water mark set by these countries.
Reason 2. The cell lines will be available to researchers
unencumbered. Think open source in terms of accelerating
rates of understanding. Think less toll gates on the product
development highway.
Reason 3. Because embryos are allowed to be created to
around the 5 day stage from people known to have diseases
(such as Parkinson's) etc. The resulting stem cell lines (cells
taken from the Inner Cell Mass of the blastocyst (= 5 day
old embryo) can give vital clues into the how a genome with
Parkinson's develops. And thereby offers better (more
focussed, cheaper, quicker) drug discovery.
As Robert Bradbury is wont to say on occasion. Today
is a good day to be an extropian :-) - and a person.
Regards,
Brett
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STEM CELLS: Scientists Create Britain's First Stem Cell Line
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030813/sc_nm/health_britff t
ain_stemcells_dc_2
"LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Wednesday
they had created Britain's first human embryonic stem
cell line, clearing the way for more research into
diseases including diabetes and Parkinson's.
The team, at King's College London, said the new line
-- a string of many identical cells -- would be deposited
in the Medical Research Council's $4.2 million stem cell
bank, which was launched last year.
Stem cells hold the promise of treating a range of medical
conditions but their use is controversial because although
they are found in adult tissue, the most flexible stem cells
come from early embryos.
In this case, the researchers said they obtained three stem
cell lines from 58 embryos. Two cell lines perished but the
remaining one had now been growing for many months.
"We are very excited about this development," said Dr
Stephen Minger, one of the leaders of the team whose
work was published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online.
"Human embryonic stem cells are found in the earliest stages
of development and are capable of giving rise to all the
different types of cell in the body. This means their possible
therapeutic uses are almost endless."
Minger told Reuters the researchers were particularly
interested in research aimed at generating new cells for
transplantation in diabetes and Parkinson's disease .. and
possibly also for patients with heart disorders.
Traditionally, stem cell lines have been created with great
difficulty using cells from embryos surplus to IVF, which
are often of poor quality. But in this case, high-quality
embryos were donated by women undergoing pre-
implantation genetic diagnosis because they were known
to be at risk of passing on serious genetic disorders if they
had children.
Only embryos unaffected by these disorders were replaced
into the women. Cells from the remaining embryos, which
were unsuitable for replacement and would normally have
perished, were used to generate the stem cell lines.
The Kings College team was one of the first two laboratories
in Britain to be granted a license by the Human Fertilization
and Embryology Authority to generate human embryonic
stem cells.
----------
Regards,
Brett Paatsch
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