Linda
If the political posts were as informative and reasoned as yours, I would
agree.  Unfortuneately, most of the political discussion on this list is
sarcastic, intolerant, and off the cuff.  I would like to be kept informed
of what is occurring on the political front but do not have the time to weed
through all of the banter to find the nuggets of information and valuable
calls to action e.g. to write our reps about a pertinent and timely piece of
legislation.

I am heartened by the addition of new people to the list who recognize this
list as an opportunity to help each other, not a list to press individual
views re politics.  If people could just take the high road instead of the
low road, it would be great e.g. stress the positive movements that we can
add our voice to.  Why must we spend so much time ridiculing views and the
people that hold them just because we dont agree with them?

Bob
---- Original Message -----
From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 5:29 AM
Subject: is this anyway to cure a disease?


> Just one of many reasons why politics should be discussed on this list.
>
> News article posted Tue, Dec. 06, 2005
> Labs unsure whether to join national stem cell bank
>
> MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Bush administration's plan for a bank of
federally approved stem cells unveiled here two months ago is being met with
apathy, confusion and derision.
>
> The bank is funded by a $16 million National Institutes of Health contract
and is meant to be a clearinghouse for the 22 human embryonic stem cell
lines available at disparate labs around the world.
>
> But even the bank's organizers acknowledge they may never have access to
half of those lines because of distribution disagreements.
>
> Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco, for instance,
say they prefer at the moment to maintain and distribute their own federally
approved lines rather than deposit them in the bank maintained by WiCell
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization connected to the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
>
> ``My biggest concern is that there are choices in the world,'' said Renee
Reijo Pera, who manages UCSF's two approved lines.
>
> Scientists in Israel, Sweden and Athens, Ga. -- who own the other stem
cell lines not controlled by WiCell and its Singapore partner ES Cell
International -- said they don't know about the bank's plans for quality
control and distribution to participate now.
>
> ``We are in negotiations. No one has said that they aren't interested, but
there's a lot of details to work out,'' WiCell spokesman Andy Cohn said.
``If they think for their business or for their interests it's better not to
participate, it's their choice.''
>
> Other researchers, though, say it doesn't matter how many approved stem
cell lines are ultimately placed in the bank because superior stem cell
lines are available from other sources who developed them without federal
funds.
>
> At a minimum, Cohn said the bank's Web site will be a place where
researchers can easily order cells at a fraction of the current cost and get
reliable information on their DNA makeup.
>
> Derek Hei, a UW-Madison researcher who helped land the contract, said the
11 lines the bank already has represent the best quality of those available
for federal funding.
>
> Many scientists believe stem cells hold the promise for treating and
curing such diseases as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and eventually heralding
a new era of regenerative medicine. But because human embryos are destroyed
in the most popular process for creating the undifferentiated cells,
religious conservatives tend to be opposed to creating new stem cells lines.
>
> In August 2001, President Bush announced on national television that the
federal government would limit funding to research on all stem cell lines
created by then.
>
> Today, those federally approved lines are viewed as antiquated and of
inferior quality compared with those created after Bush's edict with private
financing. One of the biggest problems with the federally approved stem cell
lines is that mouse cells were used to keep them alive and are therefore
unfit to be transplanted into people.
>
> So most researchers want to work with newer stem cell lines like those
created at Harvard University without mouse cells.
>
> ``If the current federal limitations stay in place, then the concept of a
centralized stem cell bank is never going to fly,'' said Sean Tipton,
spokesman for the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a
coalition of patient and research groups. ``Who wants access to suboptimal
lines even if they are in one place?''
>
>
> http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/business/industries/13339327.htm
> ------
>
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