Framing Science has a great quote from James Thomson, whose lab announced that they had proven a way to reprogram adult cells to become more primitive, embryonic-like stem cells, called “induced Pluripotent Cells.” I don’t know how I missed this one yesterday: “. . . says Thomson, the scientist who in 1998 isolated stem cells … Continue reading
In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed a Prenatal Protection Act, which named the unborn children of Texas individuals from fertilization to natural death. Texas law also calls the “individual” a “person.” With the world the way it is after Roe versus Wade, and because most of us have compassion for a woman who believes she … Continue reading
Yu, Thomson, and all, from Wisconsin published their paper on reprogrammed induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells from adult cells online in Science Express online, yesterday, just after the Yamanaka/Takahashi team from Japan published theirs in the journal, Cell. (The Thomson paper was not scheduled to go live online until the 22nd.) As discussed on this … Continue reading
The Thomson article is online (abstract is free, article is behind a pay wall), but I haven’t had a chance to read it. In the meantime, Science Magazine has a news article on both the publication from Wisconsin’s Thomson and the previously discussed Takahashi/Yamanaka article in Cell. Be sure and read the last sentence!!!! Now … Continue reading
Please see the revised version of this post, published November 30, 2007.
I got the authors backwards. Here’s the corrected version: Takahashi et al. (including Yamanaka), Cell Online, free pdf. There’s a “Preview” article in pdf here.Still waiting for Science to post Thomson’s report online.
Well, they did it! From Reuter’s, UK: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells — but without using cloning technology and without making embryos. Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of … Continue reading
While we’re all waiting for the announcement that Shinya Yamanaka’s lab has or has not published on human embryonic-like stem cells dedifferentiated from adult stem cells . . . (The press releases hit while I was writing this post.) Wesley Smith’s blog, Secondhand Smoke has a good discussion titled, ” Just Because Someone Wants Something, … Continue reading
If the scientist or doctor is driven by curiosity (and a desire for her own set of money making patents?) or because “it’s legal” and patients want it, where do we draw the line between preference, opinion and conscience? We’ve been discussing the significance of ethics and conscience at here at LifeEthics.org, the Women’s Bioethics … Continue reading
blog.bioethics.net notes that there may be a change in the direction of stem cell research, with Ian Wilmut’s announcement that he and his lab won’t be focusing on cloning or embryonic stem cell research. Blogger Greg Dahlman states that if there is a change, it’s because the science, and not the ethics, is driving that … Continue reading