stem cells
scientificactivist | July 18, 2007As I've mentioned previously, the Senate Finance Committee is considering a $35 billion expansion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP), which is currently scheduled to expire in September. Incredibly enough, President Bush has already declared that he will veto such a bill. This is the same president who, just a year ago from tomorrow, used his first veto after five and a half years of office on, of all things, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. It appears, then, that the President will be the most significant obstacle to overcome in passing an expansion of…
denialism | July 16, 2007William Saletan takes the position that progressives have no real bioethical position on stem cells in his most recent column in Slate. I'm a bit disappointed with Saletan over this one, because in his never ending quest to be thoughtful about everything, he's usually much more fair to people - even those he disagrees with. But listen to his characterization of "progressive bioethics".
I have problems with liberals. A lot of them talk about religion as though it's a communicable disease. Some are amazingly obtuse to other people's qualms. They show no more interest in an embryo than in a…
scientificactivist | June 22, 2007I'm at a conference right now and unfortunately don't have time to write extensively about this, but for those who were not aware, President Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S. 5) on Wednesday. There are not enough votes in the House and Senate to override this veto, so it's clear that our lack of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will continue until we have a new President in the White House.
On Wednesday the President also announced an executive order to encourage research into alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. As I've written before, these…
denialism | June 12, 2007
As promised, I'm going through the three papers from last week about the re-programming of adult cells into an embryonic-like phenotype. Since it is three papers I'll go through first what's common to all three, and then what each group did special.
First of all, let's summarize the method one more time.
Background
All of these papers are based on the "rational identification" of 4 critical transcription factors by Yamanaka in 2006. What they did was take 20 proteins that drive the expression of other genes that were known to be in embryonic stem cells, and added them to adult cells to…
denialism | June 6, 2007I hope this time I'm finally right about this. I've been hopeful that some strategy of developing stem cells would allow us to bypass the absurd ethical restrictions from those who think one type of destruction of an embryo is worse than another. Particularly promising were spermatogonial stem cells, but they could only be made from men (and the procedure might have been unpopular), and placental/amniotic stem cells, which were limited by the ability to passage them without differentiation, and supply (not everybody freezes back their placentas).
The ideal stem cell would have the following…
denialism | May 22, 2007
This new paper from Stem Cells is a wonderful example of the potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to treat diseases like Type I diabetes.
The reason type I diabetes is such an obvious target for hESC therapy get a little complicated, but I'll walk you guys through this paper, and recent results in islet cell transplantation to give you an idea why this result is very promising.
Type I diabetes results from the destruction of the pancreatic islet cells, or specifically the beta cells in the islets which are responsible for insulin production in response to rising blood sugar. As a…
scientificactivist | May 9, 2007The conservative movement has been notoriously effective at co-opting language for its own benefit, either by turning the meaning of commonly used words upside down or by injecting new words and phrases into the national dialogue. The use of some loaded language in a recent New York Times article by Pam Belluck on Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's new stem cell proposal demonstrates just how well these tactics have worked:
These states are all seeking ways to get around the Bush administration's restrictions on federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, which were imposed…
denialism | May 4, 2007For this Friday afternoon I thought I'd rehash a previous post from denialism.com on adult stem cells and those that hype results inappropriately to disparage embryonic stem (ES) cells. It all started with an exciting JAMA article about using autologous stem cell transplants to help treat type I diabetics who still had some capacity to produce insulin. The problem is that the adult stem cell hypers, like Wesley Smith (you guys remember him right? Senior fellow of DI etc.) will jump on any article that says "adult stem cells" and blather on and on about there are no ES cell cures - so why…
retrospectacle | March 26, 2007Remember Bush's speech last year where he denounced "human-animal hybrids"? Well, I don't know about you, but I about fell off the couch laughing. But now it looks like his worst fear has come to pass: a chimeric sheep with 15% human cells, engineered with the hope of animal organs one day being used for human transplants. A University of Nevada scientist, Dr. Esmail Zanjani, has developed the technique which involves integrating human stem cells into a sheep blastocyst.
He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a…
scientificactivist | February 13, 2007As 2008 approaches, many of the Republican contenders for the Presidency will try to paint themselves as moderates. An article in today's Washington Post, though, underlines why we should be weary of their empty rhetoric.
Romney, who is expected to formally enter the presidential race today in Dearborn, Mich., has been particularly aggressive. In October he held a casual gathering at his Boston home for a who's who of social conservative leaders. Falwell and evangelist Franklin Graham munched on sandwiches and sipped soup alongside former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and pastor Richard…
scientificactivist | January 12, 2007The U.S. Office of Research Integrity announced this week that it has found a former postdoc in Gerald Schatten's lab, Park Jong Hyuk, guilty of research misconduct for falsifying images in a manuscript on deriving embryonic stem cells from cloned rhesus monkeys. Although the paper had not yet been submitted for peer review, this is more bad news for Schatten, who has been dealing with the fallout from being a senior author on one of the papers later determined to have been fabricated by discredited South Korean researcher Hwang Woo Suk.
The AP reports:
The latest university probe showed…
scientificactivist | January 10, 2007One of the primary goals of Congress since the Democrats' stunning November 2006 election victory has been restoring federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush first imposed the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in August 2001. After the House voted in May 2005 to overturn these restrictions, the Republican Senate stalled for over a year before finally voting in favor of reversing the funding ban as well in July 2006. Bush vetoed this legislation later that month, and both the House and the Senate were short the necessary 2/3 majority to override the veto.…
retrospectacle | December 5, 2006 Remember that scene in 'Karate Kid' when Daniel-San walked in on Mr. Miyagi trying to catch a fly with a pair of chopsticks? In response to Daniel-San asking what the heck he was doing, Mr. Miyagi replied cryptically, "He who catch fly with chopstick can do anything." (Or something like that.) Oh, Mr. Miyagi's wise wise words have proven true in yet another instance.
Reported in this week's Economist (hat tip Bob Abu for the scan), is fascinating story of science meets serendipity. A Chinese woman was admitted to Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, with a chopstick in her brain (!)---…
retrospectacle | November 24, 2006This recent discovery actually makes a lot of sense: errant stem cells are often the cause of cancers and tumors, and therefore should be better targeted with chemotherapy. Stem cells are the precursors to all tissues, good and bad, and many cancers could be considered the result of stem cells' division process gone awry. Suddenly, stem cells may be producing massive amount of cells with no particularly purpose, which don't belong, and actually destory healthy normal cells. This is often the result of genetic mutations caused by chemicals, age, radiation, UV exposure, genetic predisposition,…
scientificactivist | November 22, 2006Back in August, I and several others in the scientific community expressed skepticism over Nature paper (subscription required) describing a new technique billed by the media as generating "ethically sound" stem cells. The technique involved removing a single cell from an eight-cell blastula and using this cell to derive a line of stem cells while allowing the remaining cells to grow and develop normally, without any apparent damage to the embryo. This "watered down" approach to generating stem cells didn't seem to convince other scientists, and it apparently (although not surprisingly)…
scientificactivist | November 17, 2006As the Republicans try to pick up the pieces of their Election Day loss last week, one of the things they have to do is select their new Congressional leadership. Most of their choices haven't been too surprising, including their choice for House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio). As House Majority leader, Boehner had previously held the second highest Republican rank in the House, and he has now been elevated to the highest. Although most of the press coverage has painted him as a moderate choice, over the conservative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), a look at Boehner's record would…
mikethemadbiologist | November 16, 2006Every year in the U.S., thousands of children are born with heart valve defects. Researchers have developed a way to grow heart valves from stem cells in amniotic fluid. From the AP:
Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells obtained from the fluid that cushions fetuses in the womb, offering a revolutionary approach that may be used to repair defective hearts in the future.
The idea is to create these valves in the lab while the pregnancy progresses and have them ready to implant in a baby with heart defects after it is born.
The Swiss experiment follows…
scientificactivist | November 10, 2006With the election results almost completely finalized, it's time to reflect on what they mean. Make no mistake about it, Tuesday demonstrated a true mandate for the Democrats. The Democrats achieved a majority in both the Senate and the House, picking up 6 seats and 29 seats, respectively. The Democrats did not lose any seats in either house. In total votes, the Democrats had a 13.4% advantage over the Republicans in Senate races and 5.6% advantage in House races (this shows that, in the Senate in particular, the 2 seat advantage that the Democrats hold hardly does them justice). The main…
retrospectacle | November 8, 2006Missouri voters have narrowly approved a measure sanctioning embryonic stem cell research in the state. The amendment to the state constitution received 51% of yesterday's vote after supporters waged a $30 million advertising campaign that included celebrities such as Michael J. Fox. Elsewhere, three governors who had backed stem cell research in their states won re-election, while one of the biggest congressional opponents of their use--U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)--was trounced.
"I'm very proud of Missouri," says Steve Teitelbaum, a Washington University bone pathologist who has…
scientificactivist | November 7, 2006There is so much to say about the importance of today's election, but not a great deal that hasn't already been spelled out time and time again. Most importantly, if you haven't already voted, go vote today! Hopefully you'll have time to research the individual races and find out where the candidates stand on the important issues, particularly those related to science. Either way, though, if you are concerned and disheartened with the direction our nation has taken lately, and if you want to ease the suffering that U.S. science has been forced to endure, you'll probably be voting…