This article from the Texas A&M newspaper describes the medical research with “knockout” mice, or mice that have a specific gene turned off. The University’s Texas Institute of Genomic Medicine , part of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences specializes in developing knockout mice strains using embryonic stem cells from mice embryos, which … Continue reading
I attended a once in a lifetime event sponsored by the Austin Heart Hospital and Texans for Stem Cell Research on the University of Texas campus Wednesday, October 27th. Six (edited – not five as I originally wrote.) researchers reported on cutting-edge stem cell research works-in-progress, right here in Texas. The presentations by the PhD’s, … Continue reading
A South Korean court has convicted the perpetrator of the 2005 cloning fraud. Information here.
The New Scientist has a good review article that explains a new research report from Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, that attempts with “thousands” of embryos created by placing human DNA into the oocytes or eggs of animals have failed to produce stem cells. NatureNews, the news arm of the journal, Nature discusses the … Continue reading
>Here’s a great review about those new “induced pleuripotent stem cells” (iPS) we’ve been hearing about. iPS’s are truly “patient specific stem cells” since they come from the patient himself or herself. The cells are manipulated in the lab, using viral particles and specific environments to make the able to become many different types of … Continue reading
>The “cybrid” or hybrid human-animal embryos are created in the laboratory by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transplantation, using emptied eggs from animals and the nuclear and cellular DNA from humans.. We know that there are currently experiments on-going with the human embryos made using emptied cow eggs (more on the “ease” of making these embryos, here), … Continue reading
>The New York Times (free one time registration required) has a news piece on the Stemagen cloned human embryos, with reference to “making copies of people” and implantation of cloned embryos for reproduction. One of the men who donated the fibroblast skin cells is also the owner of Stemagen. The NYT has more on the … Continue reading
>Scientists at Stemgen, a La Jolla, California laboratory have published a report on the successful cloning of human embryos in the journal, Stem Cells. (The article is available free, due to the open access policy of the journal.) The authors are very clear: these are human embryos produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer or cloning. … Continue reading
>There’s a new Public Broadcasting System (your tax dollars at work) television show on “stem cells,” “Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita.” You don’t have to go any farther than the top of the home page, with its picture of a girl in a wheelchair and this quote, “Some people consider stem cell biology to … Continue reading
> In my day – we just belled them. Poor kitties won’t be able to catch mice. The author reminds us about the veterinarian fake cloner, Hwang Wu Suk, before he finishes. From the Korean Times: Researchers found a way to clone pet cats five years ago. Now they can play a trick on their … Continue reading