stem cells
oracknows | August 22, 2012Houston, we have a problem.
Oh, wait. I'm not talking about Stanislaw Burzynski this time. But we do still have a problem, and it's a problem that resembles the Burzynski problem I recently discussed. Specifically, it's a problem of unethical clinical trials somehow winning approval from institutional review boards (IRBs). In academia, IRBs are basically ethics boards whose purpose is to protect the human subjects who agree to take part in clinical trials and other research from harm and from being subjected to experimental therapies in which the risk-benefit ratio isn't sufficiently…
dr. dolittle | June 12, 2012Drs. Chia Soo and Bruno Péault, from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, have found a way to turn stem cells from fat tissue into bone of higher quality than that grown with prior techniques.
The mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from the fat tissue may develop into bone, cartilage, muscle as well as other tissues. More importantly, fat tissue is easily accessible through liposuction.
What is unique about their research is that they were able to purify stem cells from fat tissue relatively quickly. Until now, the isolated cells were a…
sa smith | October 27, 2010Some of you in the atheisphere remember what happened this past year with 'Tom Johnson' and the 'Youre Not Helping' blog. Quick recap from Jerry:On October 22 of last year, Chris Mooney put up a post at The Intersection called "Counterproductive attacks on religion--exhibit A." The "exhibit" was an excerpt from an earlier comment on that website by someone named "Tom Johnson." Johnson claimed that he was a biologist who had gone to "conservation events" (that is, outreach meetings designed to educate people about conservation), and that atheists had behaved very badly at these events,…
mikethemadbiologist | September 1, 2010There's something that has puzzled me about the recent stem cell decision that led to an injunction that prevents the NIH from spending any funds on research involving human embryonic stem cells. I've read the decision (pdf), and it appears to be incredibly broad and damaging to NIH funding in general.
I could understand an injunction based on a finding that the policy violated federal law: I think that's stupid, but I get it. What I don't understand is the finding that NIH policy causes harm to the plaintiffs (the researchers who brought the suit):
Plaintiffs are researchers who work…
sa smith | August 1, 2010Geron press release:"We are pleased with the FDA's decision to allow our planned clinical trial of GRNOPC1 in spinal cord injury to proceed," said Thomas B. Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., Geron's president and CEO. "Our goals for the application of GRNOPC1 in subacute spinal cord injury are unchanged - to achieve restoration of spinal cord function by the injection of hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells directly into the lesion site of the patient's injured spinal cord. Additionally, we are now formally exploring the utility of GRNOPC1 in other degenerative CNS disorders including Alzheimer's…
oracknows | April 5, 2010About four months ago, the skeptical blogosphere was abuzz about a tragic story. The story was that of a Belgian man named Rom Houben, who had been unfortunate enough to have been in a motor vehicle collision and suffered serious brain injury. That brain injury left him in a comatose state, which had been diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state. What brought him worldwide prominence was a claim by neurologist Steven Laureys that he was not in a persistent vegetative state at all, but was rather fully conscious and "locked in," meaning that he could see, hear, and feel everything but could…
grrlscientist | January 22, 2010tags: Growing Organs, medicine, TEDMED,regeneration, stem cells, organ, tissue, Anthony Atala, TEDTalks, streaming video
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18…
mikethemadbiologist | July 22, 2009Our Benevolent Seed Overlords asked me to comment on this SEED article about New York's recent legislation that compensates women who donate eggs for research purposes.
So I did. Go read it.
emjohnson | July 10, 2009
Science and religion bicker in the backseat. Collin Purrington / Creative CommonsWith Francis Collins' nomination as head of the National Institutes of Health I felt it was appropriate to bring up Sam Harris' letter to the journal Nature objecting to what he called "high-minded squeamishness" on the part of the editors for their praise of his book The Language of God. In the book Collins states:
As believers, you are right to hold fast to the concept of God as Creator; you are right to hold fast to the truths of the Bible; you are right to hold fast to the conclusion that science offers no…
scientificactivist | July 6, 2009When the NIH released its draft guidelines on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in late April, they were open to a 30-day period of public comment before the formulation of the final rules. Today, the NIH has released its final guidelines (pdf).
Not much has changed, so there's not really much to say that I haven't already. The bad news is that the fairly restrictive nature of the rules was maintained (i.e. no federal funds for hESC lines derived from embryos generated specifically for research), but the good news is that the government didn't cave into some fairly outlandish requests…
sciencepunk | May 31, 2009This entry is part of the Science and the European Election series, a collaboration between SciencePunk and the Lay Scientist blog to encourage public discussion of the science policies of the major parties standing at the forthcoming European elections.
It has been said that there are serious incompatibilities between member states on regulations governing stem cell research. How will you work to resolve these differences?
Tim Worstall, UKIP:
We wouldn't work to resolve such differences. The balancing of moral issues involved in something like embryonic stem cell research is properly a…
scientificactivist | April 25, 2009About a week ago, the NIH announced its draft guidelines covering the funding of human embryonic stem cell research. You can read the draft guidelines here and my post on the topic here. As these are draft guidelines, they are open to a month-long period of public comment before the final guidelines are released, and an online system for accepting comments has just been opened up. Comments must be received by 11:00 pm EST on May 26, 2009, and you can enter your comments here.
Below, I have pasted the comments I submitted:
To Whom It May Concern:
These comments are in response to the Draft…
amillikan | April 21, 2009Following through with President Obama's executive order issued March 9, Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells (link to PDF), the NIH has released a draft of guidelines revising the NIH's position on how it may fund "responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research." The funding only extends to human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos created in excess at fertility clinics. ScienceBlogger Nick Anthis from The Scientific Activist views the creation of these guidelines as a "significant…
scientificactivist | April 17, 2009A month after the Obama Administration lifted Bush era restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, the NIH has now announced its new draft guidelines for such research. The new guidelines will greatly expand the scope of federally-funded research by allowing funds to be used for work on stem cell lines derived from excess fertility clinic embryos.
However, federal funds will not be available for work on hESC lines derived from embryos that have been generated specifically for the purpose of stem cell work. This is a pretty severe limitation, actually, and…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2009tags: performance horses, polo, racing, tendon injury, stem cell research
Horses clear a jump during the Challenge Cup Handicap Steeplechase
on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival in the UK.
Image: BBC News.
Those of you who follow my writings about racehorses and other high-performance horses will be interested to learn that several companies that I've been following have been redirecting their stem-cell research that they originally developed to help injured horses to help people recover from Achilles tendon injuries.
After a tendon or ligament tear, both horses and people…
denialism | March 14, 2009It's come time to lie about science again - this time about the reality of embryonic stem cell pluripotency - and some of the old lies are coming back out of the storage shed. For instance, Andrew Breitbart on Real Time last night, and in a video from (liar for Jesus) Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, I've heard about how adult stem cells have cured or treated 72 diseases. Oh and embryonic stem cells, they've cured none. It's been a while since we've seen this adult stem cell nonsense.
I had to jog my memory for a minute, I knew this was a lie, but it had been so long since I…
amillikan | March 10, 2009President Obama signed an executive order today to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research signed into place by President Bush in 2001. The ban limited funding to fewer than two dozen existing lines of embryonic stem cells, severely crippling scientists who use embryonic stem cells to research diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, among others—now, over a hundred lines developed since then will be eligible for funding. Said ScienceBlogger James Hrynyshyn of The Island of Doubt, "the news that...science will no longer be held hostage to fundamentalist…
bioephemera | March 9, 2009Yuval Levin has an editorial in today's WaPo that makes a very good point:
Science policy is not just a matter of science. Like all policy, it calls for a balancing of priorities and concerns, and it requires a judgment of needs and values that in a democracy we trust to our elected officials. In science policy, science informs, but politics governs, and rightly so. There are, of course, different ways for politics to exert authority over science. To distort or hide unwelcome facts is surely illegitimate. But to weigh facts against societal priorities -- economic, political and ethical -- in…
scientificactivist | March 9, 2009Today was a great day for science in the Executive Branch. Firstly, President Barack Obama (finally!) lifted George W. Bush's August 2001 restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research in an executive order entitled "Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells":
The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America's scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the…
denialism | March 9, 2009President Obama has lifted the ban on embryonic stem cell research enacted by Bush, but I'm left feeling that this intervention came many years too late.
Pledging that his administration will "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology," President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration's strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research.
...
But Mr. Obama went on to say that the majority of Americans "have come to a consensus that we should pursue this research; that the potential it offers is great, and with proper guidelines and strict oversight the perils can be…