stem cells

There's a hot congressional race going on right now deep in the heart of Texas in District 17, which stretches from just north of Houston to just south of Fort Worth and includes my alma mater, Texas A&M University. The contest pits incumbent Democrat and local guy Chet Edwards against Republican Van Taylor, who was apparently flown in by the GOP for this race. Edwards had a tough but successful race in 2004, when he was the only Texas Democrat targeted by Republican redistricting to retain his seat. So far things are looking good for Edwards this year, but, as with in the rest of the…
In my new talk, I strongly emphasize that scientists need to be strategically aware of how they are communicating their knowledge and their results in politically contentious areas. If they're not careful, not only might they communicate badly--but what they say might actually backfire. It' hard to think of a better case study than the recent controversy over the latest work by the biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology. ACT's scientists published a study in Nature about deriving pluripotent stem cell lines from single cells taken from an embryo, a result touted as "an approach that does not…
Darling of Nature and current researcher at UM, Dr. Sean Morrison, has recently authored a paper implicating a protein called 'inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4A' in the decline of a stem cell's lifespan. A single molecular switch plays a central role in inducing stem cells in the brain, pancreas, and blood to lose function as they age, researchers have found. Mice lacking that switch show considerably reduced aging-related decline in stem cell function and tissue regeneration. "People tend to think that old tissues have less regenerative capacity because they are wearing out," said…
OK, I'll admit that this is more than a little scary. In a recent entry, I expressed skepticism toward a recent finding in Nature that had been hailed as a way to extract "ethically sound" lines of human embryonic stem cells. The technique involves 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 was an interesting advance, but it didn't seem to address some of the fundamental points plaguing the debate on human embryonic stem…
"Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean you're smart." Lakehead University in northern Ontario set up www.yaleshmale.com in a bid to attract potential new students. It shows a picture of Yale graduate Mr Bush with the caption: "Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean you're smart." "It was literally a tongue-in-cheek way of getting attention," university president and vice-chancellor Frederick Gilbert told Reuters news agency. The website had received more than 7,000 hits, he said on Monday, and online comments had been 95% positive.…
...since Bush announced his restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, according to SexDrugsandDNA.com. Well, not exactly, but close enough. I think it's actually been five years and seventeen days, but who's counting? ... Ummm... anyways.... From the site that brought us the Bill Frist Stem Cell Clock, now comes (you guessed it) the George Bush Stem Cell Clock. Michael Stebbins, who kept pressure on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist during his year-long delay of HR 810 has now set his sights on President Bush, whose veto of the eventually passed HR 810 is the one obstacle standing…
I would be remiss if I didn't address the latest stem cell news, since it's already all over the place. An article from today's issue of published in advance online yesterday by Nature describes a technique for deriving a line of human embryonic stem cells by removing a single cell from the eight-cell blastula (created for in vitro fertilization). According to the paper, the blastula can still be implanted and allowed to grow and develop normally, without any apparent damage to the embryo. Not surprisingly, the press has painted this as a potential solution to the "moral reservations"…
Over at Retrospectacle, Shelley reports on a Forbes article detailing the impressive degree to which various billionaires are picking up the slack left in the wake of restrictive Bush Administration regulations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. From the original article: Since the ban, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell work has risen to all of $40 million a year, just one-fifth of the money for other kinds of stem cells and a pittance in the $20 billion research budget of the government's National Institutes of Health. But Eli Broad and a few other billionaires--some…
As reported in Forbes, many pro-stem cell billionaires are picking up the cause and heavily donating to research projects to develop stem cell therapies. Following the Bush Administration's further constraints of funding, and limited federal stem cell lines (which now contain a woeful number of defects), universities and foundations were forced to set up off-site labs in Singapore or Europe---and to raise private funds. Enter wealthy, scientifically-concerned people--many of whom are within the Republican party. Eli Broad sees it as a great way to save lives--and he is tapping his $6 billion…
Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development by Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Kales Press: 2006. 176 pages.Buy now! (Amazon) If you examine yourself in the mirror, take a closer look at your favorite pet, or even contemplate that pesky fly that just won't leave you alone, it's difficult to not come away with a starry-eyed appreciation for life. With their overwhelming complexity and astonishing consistency, but seemingly endless diversity, these everyday animals are almost enough to make you believe in God. And, I don't just mean some vague modern spiritual presence. No, I'm talking about…
Apparently, an increasing trend is "stem cell tourism"---but not for Alzheimer's or a spinal cord injury. No, rather for aging, wrinkles, cellulite, and general "rejuvenation." This is obviously quackery, as the methods they describe (which range from smearing dead cow cells as a facial, or direct injection of stem cells from an aborted fetus' liver) have not been substantiated, published, or un-biasedly proven to work. Unfortunately, stem cell detractors are using this type of off-label, shallow usage of stem cells as an excuse to condemn all of stem cell therapy as morally degenerate and…
Its no secret that you can go overseas, notably to Asia, to receive embryonic stem cell treatments for a variety of neurological disorders. Well, I just found an interesting website which reports on the progress of China's stem cell therapies (mostly for wealthy Westerners) as well as patient follow-ups to track the recovery post-op. Take a moment and read the testimonials. This could have been America.
It wouldn't be funny, really, unless it was in the Onion. My favorite: "Maybe Bush would pass the bill if, instead of research, the stem cells would be used for torture." Ah the Onion. Irreverent to the last. (Thanks to Kendra!)
After it passed in the Senate on Tuesday, Bush proved he was as stubborn as promised and vetoed HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, on Wednesday. This was another step backwards for science in the US and a clear violation of the will of the American People. What a shame.
"These boys and girls are not spare parts," he said of the children in the audience. "They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells." Yeah, so what? So does a tumor. Bush said, "If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would, for the first time in our history, be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I'm not going to allow it." We're already compelled to fund a war that has killed over 3,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. These are…
One veto, as promised. I'm too disgusted to write anything else right now.
Bush's stem cell veto is going to have big, big political repercussions. The stem cell issue will certainly feature prominently in multiple congressional races this fall. So now the pressing political question becomes, which members of Congress who are up for re-election, and who support Bush on stem cells (and therefore have votes on the record against expanding the policy), are most vulnerable? Hmm, I imagine Santorum is one of them....list your favorite enemies of science below, with an emphasis on folks actually up for reelection this year.
Art Caplan has an extremely powerful piece denouncing Bush's latest action. And indeed, it's truly unbelievable: Bush misleads us about the extent to which his stem cell policy will support research, never apologizes, and then blocks the expansion of that policy once it has become entirely clear that it did not succeed on the president's own terms--i.e., by supporting adequate research. But let Caplan say it: With his veto the president has now reaffirmed a policy that never made any sense, garnered no scientific support to speak of, was abandoned by both houses of Congress and the leaders of…
Judging from the stem cell vote, it looks like the Republican right is still predominant, even if there has been some erosion on this issue and a lot of Republicans shifting positions: In the Senate, 43 Democrats, 19 Republicans and one independent voted to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, while 36 Republicans and one Democrat -- Ben Nelson (Neb.) -- voted against it. First of all, what the heck is up with Ben Nelson? Second, the above vote tally inspires me to include a point of clarification. When I introduced the phrase "Republican War on Science" into the discourse--…
I'm on vacation right now, but I had to come out of hiding for this one. HR 810 passed in the senate today, 63-37. That was enough to meet the 60 vote mark for passage, but it won't be enough (four votes short) to override the presidential veto that Bush is still promising. The future of stem cell research in America still very much hangs in the balance.