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• More On Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research

  By way of following up on a recently noted article on funding for embryonic stem cell research, here are comments by Ronald Bailey from Reason Magazine: "Instead of being modeled on drug development, perhaps embryonic stem cell research will follow a development path more like that blazed by researchers in assisted reproduction. Rather than being hampered by a paucity of federal research funding perhaps embryonic stem cell research will flourish just as research on assisted reproduction techniques (ART) has. Arguably in vitro fertilization research has proceeded rapidly because of, not in spite of, essentially no federal funding. ... Without intrusive federal oversight and regulation IVF researchers have been able to deploy new techniques such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and sperm sorting for sex selection very shortly after they have been developed. Research has stopped in promising areas of ART only when the Feds decide to get involved." It should be no surprise that work is more effective per dollar spent when the funders have a far greater, pressing interest in the outcome, and when there is less regulation to raise costs to no good end.
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.reason.com/news/show/118069.html
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Friday, January 19, 2007 4:20 PM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 1 Comments

  Tags: Embryonic stem cells, Stem cell research

• On Stem Cells Versus Parkinson's

  From AJC.com: "More than a million Americans who suffer from the debilitating neurological disorder Parkinson's disease are likely to be among the first to benefit from promising advances in embryonic stem cell research ... We want to replenish the population of nerve cells that are dying in the brains of Parkinson's victims. The encouraging recent scientific finding is that human embryo [embryonic] stem cells can be grown into the specific dopamine neuron that dies in Parkinson's, and we know that it can be transplanted and restore function in animal models [rats]. ... "If we manage to grow stem cells at will, we could have a supply that could help a large number of patients and reconstitute their [brain] circuitry."
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/10/16/1017brains.html
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 4:26 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Embryonic stem cells, Stem cell research, Parkinson's disease

• On Embryonic Stem Cell Research

  From the Journal of Cell Biology: "Talk of policy has dominated talk of science for those interested in embryonic stem cell science. But research is continuing, and the advances are making clear why embryonic stem cells [ESCs] are such an important scientific and medical resource. ... To assess the state of the field, we check in with five bench scientists who are pushing embryonic cells to be all that they can be. The projects they are tackling include a survey of what gives an ESC its identity, new attempts at deriving ESCs from [somatic cell nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning], perfecting the transformation of ESCs into either oligodendrocytes that make myelin or pancreatic cells that make insulin, and creating an ESC-based model for Alzheimer's disease." TESC research is vital to the end goal of replacing cells lost with age, thus preventing a range of degenerative, fatal conditions.
  
  View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/174/6/743
  Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
  Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 6:24 AM from Longevity Meme News and Commentary / 0 Comments

  Tags: Embryonic stem cells, Stem cell research