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Science & Medicine News
Wed Feb 09, 2005
| Details Discovered on How Human Stem Cells become Nerve Cells; Findings Suggest Routes to New ALS Therapies |
| By Anonymous - January 31, 2005 |
| Investigators funded by The ALS Association have shown for the first time that human stem cells can be made to become motor neurons, the cells of the nervous system destroyed by ALS. The research details the sequence of molecular events that guide embryonic stem cells into becoming motor neurons, the cells that make muscles contract. The findings, published January 31 in the advance, online version of the journal, Nature Biotechnology, will guide researchers towards new therapies for the disease. According to ALSA science director, Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., "the ability to produce human motor neurons in lab dishes is of immense value, not only for future therapy, but immediately,... |
| Source: PharmaLive |
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| Cord Blood Stem Cells Can Repair Heart Damage - Human cells restore pumping function in rats following heart attack |
| By Anonymous - January 4, 2005 |
| Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have effectively treated heart attacks in animals, suggesting a new source of cells for human treatments. Researcher Robert Henning and colleagues at the University of South Florida in Tampa injected human umbilical cord blood stem cells into rat hearts an hour after a heart attack and found that they greatly reduced the size of damage and restored pumping function to near normal. Scar tissue was minimized and more heart muscle remained than in controls. Previous research has demonstrated the potential of using stem cells to treat heart attack damage, but these have primarily used stem cells from adult bone marrow and skeletal muscle. While not as primitive as embryonic stem cells,... |
| Source: Betterhumans |
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| Cat has 10 lives, thanks to $50,000 cloning - In a first, Texas woman pays Sausalito firm to duplicate her recently deceased pet |
| By Peter Fimrite - December 23, 2004 |
| A Texas woman whose cat Nicky died last year has become the first heartbroken animal lover willing to pay a fortune to clone a recently departed pet. The creation and subsequent sale of Little Nicky is the first commercial transaction of a cloned pet by the Sausalito-based biotechnology company Genetic Savings and Clone -- a solitary sale that critics fear will soon lead to a stampede of bereft pet owners. The only detectable difference between the 9-week-old kitten and its predecessor, according to the owner, is the $50,000 it cost... |
| Source: San Francisco Chronicle |
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| British to Clone Human Embryos for Stem Cells |
| By Rick Weiss - February 9, 2005 |
| Ian Wilmut, who oversaw the creation of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, was granted a license yesterday by British regulators to create cloned human embryos for research. It is the second such license granted by the British government in the past six months and parallels similar recent government actions in Korea and China -- a trend that has some American scientists concerned that the United States is losing its lead in one of the fastest-paced specialties in biomedical research... |
| Source: The Washington Post |
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