Embryonic stem cell research gets green light
 

(CNN) -- Federal regulators have cleared the way for the first human trials of human embryonic stem-cell research, authorizing researchers to test whether the cells are safe to use in spinal injury patients, the company behind the trials announced Friday.


Embryonic stem cells are blank cells found in embryos, which have the ability to turn into any cell in the body.

The tests could begin by summer, said Dr. Thomas Okarma, president and CEO of the Geron Corporation. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the trials, which will use human stem cells authorized for research by then-President George W. Bush in 2001.

The patients will be those with the most severe spinal cord injuries, called complete spinal cord injuries.

"A complete spinal cord injury has no hope of recovery below the injury," Okarma told CNN. "This is significant because it's the first clinical trial of a human embryonic-based product."

The primary purpose of the trial will be to see whether injecting these cells into patients is safe, but Okarma said researchers will also look for any signs of recovery. Scientists will monitor the patients for a year after the injections to see if they are regaining any function below the injured point.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/23...ell/index.html

It's about time.

5 years too late for Chris Reeve.

Overseas, they use fat cells (such as from liposuction) instead of embryonic stem cells. That sounds more like a win-win situation to me.

And we definitely have plenty of those here in the US.;)

Here is a link to an article about this- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1210122254.htm

Luckily, however, we can now investigate all options rather than ones that the government deems appropriate...science should be left to the discretion of the scientists not government officials with no science training.

ditto, ditto, ditto

Adding one more ditto to yours.:)

Agreed. While I am in favor of stem cell research, I am not in favor of the use of embryonic cells.

Agree.

Well,...in some branches, government funding pays for science and they go hand in hand with each other...There are indeed scientists who work within the government that decides where taxpayer money should go for research and development.

Your Veterans Affairs system is one such area.

:)

Oh and they're doing such a great job :rolleyes:

I would say the NIH is a better example than Veterans Affairs. The NIH reviewers for grant monies are actually scientists/epidemiologists/biostatisticians who are working in the field and who agree to be part of the study sections to review grant applications and score them. The highest scores get the grant money. They don't review applications from their own institutions and are never really sure how high a score needs to be to get the money. In recent years, funding has decreased so scores have had to be really high to get funding. It's a pretty good system though.

The grants are scored by a percentile rank and there is a payline. So a score of 100 or below with a payline of 80 will get funded. There is also a propensity of new researchers getting "first awards". The issue with that is, new researchers do not always have the support systems in place or the networking skills available to produce publishable bodies of work like senior researchers...

These days though, EVERYBODY is definitely NOT getting funding unless you cure a disease and you are the flavor of the month...

I KNOW THIS PROCESS ALL TO WELL!!! LOL!!! Enough reasons for leaving the field...

Oh, and the peer reviewer cores in the molecular side is VERY misogynistic, homophobic, racist, sexist and elitist.

So some top diseases will not be determined if you are in the "in crowd"--often driven by politics...

Basically, we are playing catch up to other countries who have been doing human embryonic stem cells for ~8 years now...

Great news, now is a great time to invest in Stem Cell research companies.
And for the record: We should use embryonic cells as well and I think we'll see a shift that way. The fact that Obama opposed a partial birth abortion ban as a legislator leads me to think that he'll give the green light to embryonic stem cell research.

The way the Michigan law that was passed in November reads, the only embryonic stem cells that can be used here are those that are excess embryos from invitro fertilization that will be thrown away anyway because the parents aren't going to use them. It specifies that no embryos can be created for the purpose of embryonic stem cell research, no agency can make money off of selling embryos for the purpose of stem cell research, etc. It's quite specific. From all the "vote no on 2" signs that were around, I thought for sure it was going to fail but it actually passed by a pretty good margin. I think the people against it were just much more vocal.

AKA: I'm sorry to hear it's that way for molecular. The scientists I know who sit on NIH study sections are none of those things. In fact, most of them are minorities and/or women. Perhaps my view is slanted because my institution is well developed in research and the senior investigators mentor and nurture the junior investigators to help them get going. They often tag on the junior investigator projects to their own major projects so that they can have pilot data when they apply.

IDK what it is, either my University in the department I was in, but the reviews were vicious and missed the scope of what I was trying to convey. I had zero support by my so-called mentors. I was doing R32's and school pilots (while they were not NIH directly). I even took a special grant class offered by my University, I received ZERO support. Now if I lived in DC or came from a big named school, where I original was located, like UT Southwestern, I probably would have gotten the kinds of grant funding for my research. But somehow, I was penalized to making a life-altering decision...

Interestingly, the school were I was, is going to be heavily penalized, they are losing too much money to be a Research 1 university... Dunno what's going to happen, but basically, they will be bankrupt... Kinna sad.

Anywho, folks are not going to be treated very well healthwise in this area and don't ask one major financier to bail them out...

Call it The Freeze... My former institution would have been smart to institute a collaborative research... Oh well...

But it's not the VA or NIH who are saying that we shouldn't fund stem cell research. That is a purely political dictum!

Stemcells inc. (NYSE:STEM) is up 33.5% today.

Where did you put money down on these? I would go with Stem Cell Technologies if you can... They have a more grounded company. The other one I'd support is Geron...

I didn't actually invest but I would have if I wasn't a 20 year old college student.
My fantasy stock market account for one of my classes started three days ago is up 19% over that time period though. /shameless bragging