Win-Win for Stem Cell Research
A U.S. research team has developed a method for creating stem cell lines without destroying human embryos by removing a single cell, leaving the embryo intact. If the technique proves to be effective, it should deflate the nonsense rhetoric of right-wing strategists who argue that the surplus embryos used by scientists?destined for disposal anyway?should not be used for lifesaving research.
A U.S. research team has developed a method for creating stem cell lines without destroying human embryos by removing a single cell, leaving the embryo intact. If the technique proves to be effective, it should deflate the nonsense rhetoric of right-wing strategists who argue that the surplus embryos used by scientists?destined for disposal anyway?should not be used for lifesaving research.
BBC News:
Rock Solid JournalismUsing spare human IVF embryos, the researchers removed single cells from them, employing the same procedure used for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a technique that has been used in IVF so cells can be removed from the embryo and tested for genetic disorders.
The process, said the team, leaves the embryo intact, enabling it to continue and grow into a healthy foetus.
Of the 16 embryos used, they developed two long-term stem cell lines, which, Professor Lanza said, were “genetically normal and able to generate all of the cell types of the body”.
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Scientists said this week that they had made the long-sought discovery of how sperm latches onto an egg in the very first spark of reproduction, the outcome of a near decade-long hunt.
A tug of war is playing out in court between the Obama administration and U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth over the issue of embryonic stem cell research, and Lamberth appears to have prevailed in the latest round.
In a bid to create a vast reserve of universally acceptable O-negative blood, a team of Scottish scientists is heading up a research project that aims to produce synthetic blood from embryonic stem cells.
The House has passed legislation in support of stem cell research. The vote was 253 to 174. President Bush's only use of the veto was to nix a similar bill last year, and this proposed expansion of research is seen as a direct challenge to him.
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