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Hi Linda, The news from Korea is amazing and shifts everything. Should we be sending these last two paragraphs to elected officials? Dropping them from helicopters? Tattooing them on our foreheads? Kathleen ================================================ "Hwang said that his approach is actually less controversial than using discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization. The cells grown in Hwang's lab don't have the ability to grow into a person, according to Hwang and other scientists. ``Ethically this is a better way of producing stem cells than using cells from embryos,'' said David Magnus, director of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics. Magnus addressed the ethics of the Korean research in the conference call with reporters yesterday. ``These things, whatever they are, aren't people.'' --=============================================== -----Original Message----- From: Linda J Herman <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Thu, 19 May 2005 23:23:58 -0400 Subject: ARTICLE: Stem cell Technique may speed therapies Stem-Cell Technique May Speed Therapies, Study Says (Update1) May 19 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean researchers said they've found a more efficient way to create individually tailored stem cells, the building blocks that may one day be used to cure conditions such as diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. For the first time, an experiment successfully combined individual DNA of various types of patients with an egg from an unrelated donor to make stem cells, researchers led by Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University said in a study published today. The work created 11 new lines, or groups, of the cells that may be used to study and, eventually, treat serious diseases. ``What we've seen is a tremendous advance,'' said Leonard Zon, a Harvard Medical School researcher and president of the Chicago-based International Society for Stem Cell Research, in a telephone interview yesterday. Zon wasn't involved in the South Korean study, published today in Sciencexpress, the online version of the journal Science. ``You can basically get designer embryonic stem cells.'' The technique may be a first step toward using stem cells to grow genetically tailored tissue for repairing organs such as the brain or pancreas without the risk that a patient would reject a donor's tissue. In experiments the researchers conducted a year ago, the DNA came only from the woman who donated the egg, and the resulting cell lines would have had limited application. The next challenge will be learning how to direct the stem cells to form desired tissues, said Gerald Schatten, a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine stem-cell researcher who participated in the study. Stem cells matching patients' DNA can be generated with the new process ``regardless of age or sex or infirmity,'' Schatten said yesterday during a conference call arranged by Science with reporters. ``We owe the people of Korea and the government of Korea a debt of gratitude.'' U.S. Research Research using the new stem-cell lines wouldn't be eligible for U.S. government funding because President George W. Bush's policy prohibits use of federal money for experiments with human embryonic stem-cell lines created after August 2001. Bush cited objections to creation of new human embryonic stem- cell lines, which usually involves destroying days-old embryos to harvest the cells. States including California and New Jersey have started their own programs to fund the research. With funding from the South Korean government, Hwang's lab in each case took the nucleus that contains a cell's DNA from a patient with a condition such as spinal-cord injuries, diabetes or an immune disorder, and implanted it into an egg cell provided by women donors, in a process also known as cloning using nuclear transfer. After the implanted egg was placed on a bed of ``feeder'' cells, a medium used to nurture an implanted egg, some began forming embryo-like groups of cells, a process that normally occurs only after eggs are fertilized by sperm. Successful Growth About one in 16 of the cell groups grew successfully, a rate more than 10 times better than the researchers achieved in a similar experiment a year ago. This time, the DNA implanted into the donor egg came from someone other than the donor, showing that the stem-cell lines can be produced with anyone's DNA. The latest experiment also succeeded in using human feeder cells, rather than widely used mouse cells that some researchers say may contaminate the resulting stem cells. When the stem cells were allowed to reproduce, some matured into cell types including those for bone, muscle, skin, nerves and the retina. Stem cells are like blank slates that can be directed to become cells with specific functions. Tissue Rejection ``For the first time ever in half a century of transplantation we have a working technology to eliminate tissue rejection,'' said Robert Lanza, medical director of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a closely-held biotechnology company in Worcester, Massachusetts. ``It's unbelievably good news for patients.'' Using the same cloning approach, researchers might be able to grow tissues from patients with specific diseases to perform advanced experiments. Cells from patients with Alzheimer's disease could be grown into brain tissue, for example, giving scientists new insight into the incurable disorder, Harvard's Zon said. Using the Technique Laboratories probably will begin using the technique to advance their own research into various diseases, researchers and company officials said. ``It makes me want to run out and set up shop and start doing this,'' said John Gearhart, director of the Stem Cell Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. ``If these cells do demonstrate the characteristics of disease, we can use them to'' screen drugs for effectiveness or to customize therapy, he said. In California, where voters have approved a $3 billion bond sale to fund stem-cell research in the next 10 years, scientists probably will begin using the South Korean approach, said David Greenwood, Chief Financial Officer of Menlo Park-based Geron Corp. ``A number of researchers have described this as a possible avenue of opportunity,'' he said in a telephone interview yesterday. Geron's shares rose 46 cents, or 6.8 percent, to $7.21 as of 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Shares of Palo Alto, California-based StemCells Inc. rose 41 cents, or 13 percent, to $3.58. The company is using stem cells from adults rather than from embryos to develop a treatment for a rare brain disorder. Viacell Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, rose 39 cents, or 6.9 percent, to $6.05. The company stores umbilical-cord stem cells and other types for possible use in treatment and is working on stem-cell therapies. Obstacle Overcome Harvard's Zon, who is trying to use stem cells to cure blood disorders, said the South Korean work solved an important obstacle in his research, and probably shaved three years off bringing his work to human testing. ``I'm looking forward to recreating the technique here in Boston,'' he said. ``We need to keep advancing the field as much as possible so we can shorten these time lines.'' Twenty-seven U.S. states are considering measures that either promote or restrict stem-cell research, according to Patrick Kelly, vice president of state government relations for the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization trade group. States including Texas and Missouri are considering or have considered legislation that would prohibit the technique, called somatic cell nuclear transfer or therapeutic cloning. Such restrictions might put the U.S. at risk for falling behind other countries in biomedical research, Kelly said in a telephone interview. `Behind the Curve' ``This is the frontier and it is being pursued, particularly in Korea,'' said Kelly said. ``As long as we continue to have this debate about the morality of doing research on a single-cell entity living in a petri dish, we stand to be behind the curve.'' The U.S. House of Representatives may vote as early as next week on two bills seeking to expand stem cell research, Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday. One bill would remove federal limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research, while the other would encourage work on stem cells that come from umbilical cord blood. Hwang said that his approach is actually less controversial than using discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization. The cells grown in Hwang's lab don't have the ability to grow into a person, according to Hwang and other scientists. ``Ethically this is a better way of producing stem cells than using cells from embryos,'' said David Magnus, director of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics. Magnus addressed the ethics of the Korean research in the conference call with reporters yesterday. ``These things, whatever they are, aren't people.'' To contact the reporters on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at [log in to unmask]; Marni Leff Kottle in San Francisco at [log in to unmask]; Last Updated: May 19, 2005 16:27 EDT Source: Bloomberg.com http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aBYd9rG77zok&refer=as ia ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn