>Lots of people (here, here, and here, etc.) are commenting on the “Proof of Concept” by Jaenisch, et. al., in this week’s ScienceExpress (early online publication before print) that showed gene modification to reprogram mouse cells in order to create blood line stem cells that would achieve gene therapy – or even, a cure – … Continue reading
> This could liberate future researchers from relying on embryonic tissue, which can be more difficult to acquire. “NatureNews,” the news alert website for the journal Nature, has a news report (registration required) on a study published in the December 6 issue of the journal by researchers from Bonn, New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania … Continue reading
>Bioethics.net compares the Bush administration’s happiness about reprogrammed adult stem cells with that man, Mr. Clinton’s, “I did not have sex with that woman!” and President Bush’s statement “Mission accomplished,” after our US troops captured Baghdad. I’ll accept the latter (at some future date, if the evidence supports it), but the first is at least … Continue reading
10 years after the world learned about the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the scientist responsible for her birth announces that cloning is passe’. Just after the announcement that a US lab has managed the first confirmed cloning of primate (monkeys, not human) embryos using adult cell donor DNA, Ian Wilmut made statements to the … Continue reading
The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) has published the article that was the subject of this blog last week, and which claims that researchers at the University of Texas at Houston have produced the “first transplantable source of lung epithelial cells.” There is no evidence that these cells are “transplantable,” and they … Continue reading