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Looks like Korea will probably cure Parkinsons before we do
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:10 pm
by R00k
Thank god the conservatives aren't letting us perform such evil research!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_052005Z.shtml
South Korean researchers are reporting today that they have developed a highly efficient recipe for producing human embryos through cloning, and then extracting their stem cells.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers, led by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University, said they used their method to produce 11 human stem cell lines that were genetic matches of patients who ranged in age from 2 to 56.
The method, called therapeutic cloning, is one of the great hopes of the stem cell field. It produces stem cells, universal cells that are extracted from embryos, killing the embryos in the process, and that, in theory, can be directed to grow into any of the body's cell types.
*****
Dr. Hwang said he had no intention of using the method to produce babies that were clones. "Our proposal is limited to finding a way to cure disease," he said. "That is our proposal and our research goal."
Previously, the same group produced a single stem cell line from a cloned embryo, but the process was so onerous that many scientists said it was not worth trying to repeat it, and some doubted that the South Koreans' report was even correct.
Things have changed.
The new finding buoyed researchers who had wanted to use such stem cells to study diseases but had thought it would be years, if ever, before it would be practical to obtain them. "It is a tremendous advance," said Dr. Leonard Zon, a stem cell researcher at Harvard Medical School and the president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, who was not involved in the research.
Phew! Hopefully all the high-tech and advanced scientific jobs will move overseas with the manufacturing positions now, so we can focus on making more cheeseburgers.
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:11 pm
by SoM
i like the docs name
dr. woo suk wang :icon14:
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:12 pm
by Nightshade
FFS, how can you trust research from a doctor whose middle name is Suck?
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:12 pm
by SplishSplash
Dr. Hwang lol
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:23 pm
by werldhed
Sounds promising. :icon14:
I always wondered, though, if nuclear transfer really produces genetically identical clones. I would think that cytoplasmic DNA in the surrogate egg would make a difference that could appear in the cell lines later on. I really don't know. Maybe someone here does?
Oh, and these two points are troubling:
Opinion polls have had varied results, often depending on the words that are used to describe the work. In a recent Gallup poll, just 38 percent of respondents approved of cloning embryos for research. Another poll, which used the term "somatic cell nuclear transfer" instead of "cloning," found that 72 percent approved.
It's like the people who say stem cells come from abortions. They just regurgitate buzz words without knowing what's going on.
Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, commented in an e-mail message that "whatever its technical merit, this research is morally troubling: it creates human embryos solely for research, makes it much easier to produce cloned babies, and exploits women as egg donors not for their benefit."
Leave it to capitalism. God forbid women should volunteer to donate their eggs. Or in the case of cloning cells from a female donor, couldn't they just use her own eggs for her own benefit?
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:24 pm
by Pext
SoM wrote:i like the docs name
dr. woo suk wang :icon14:
:icon19:
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 2:58 pm
by R00k
werldhed wrote:Sounds promising. :icon14:
I always wondered, though, if nuclear transfer really produces genetically identical clones. I would think that cytoplasmic DNA in the surrogate egg would make a difference that could appear in the cell lines later on. I really don't know. Maybe someone here does?
Although I posted it as a commentary on socio-economical issues down the road in the US due to our recent paranoid policies, I have to admit that I wondered the same thing when I read it, more or less.
But the way I thought of it was, I wonder if somehow these embryos
were allowed to grow, and even reproduce -- how many generations would it take before we began to see defects or mutations occur as a side-effect of their quote-unquote 'artificial' production? It seems like it would be hard to know exactly how reliable this sort of thing is without testing it a little further down the genetic line somehow.
But for all practical purposes it doesn't really matter I guess -- if it can eventually cure Parkinsons, alzheimers, and other serious diseases.
werldhed wrote:Oh, and these two points are troubling:
Opinion polls have had varied results, often depending on the words that are used to describe the work. In a recent Gallup poll, just 38 percent of respondents approved of cloning embryos for research. Another poll, which used the term "somatic cell nuclear transfer" instead of "cloning," found that 72 percent approved.
It's like the people who say stem cells come from abortions. They just regurgitate buzz words without knowing what's going on.
Yes that drives me nuts on a regular basis. The buzzwords come down from Washington and people latch onto them like they're the answers to life, the universe and everything.
werldhed wrote:
Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, commented in an e-mail message that "whatever its technical merit, this research is morally troubling: it creates human embryos solely for research, makes it much easier to produce cloned babies, and exploits women as egg donors not for their benefit."
Leave it to capitalism. God forbid women should volunteer to donate their eggs. Or in the case of cloning cells from a female donor, couldn't they just use her own eggs for her own benefit?
Yea, god forbid someone do controversial work on their quest to save tens of thousands of lives too.
Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 9:08 pm
by R00k
Well in answer to this breakthrough, Bush responds predictably:
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2239/2005-5 ... 239012.htm
US President George W. Bush has condemned stem cell research advances in South Korea saying he will veto any US legislation aimed at loosening restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.
What a visionary.
Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 11:56 pm
by bitWISE
George W Jesus needs a swift kick in a god damn nuts.
Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 3:53 am
by Massive Quasars
He can't stop their research, but he can let people die in the interim while he protects the sanctity of certain cells. No guarantees at this point, but with so much promise why squander it with limited support and open hostility that threatens private funding.
I prefered GW as a drunkard of weak faith, than a sober fundamentalist.
Props to the UK and South Korea for being most proactive in this research (or least meddlesome).
Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 3:54 am
by Freakaloin
Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:25 pm
by blood.angel
The US trying to ban it is a ruse to stop other countries from making discoveries before the US does.
Once a country discovers, for instance, the cure to all cancers, they will make billions if not trillions on it and will control who gets it around the world.
The US knows its waaaaay behind everyone else so they will try anything to catch up. I wouldnt be surprised if they start to demand full access to the Korean knowledge.
Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:31 pm
by Keep It Real
In my experience Koreans are nothing but materialists, they play computer games all the time and are scared of talking to other people. Although korean girls are better than white girls
Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:35 pm
by R00k
blood.angel wrote:The US trying to ban it is a ruse to stop other countries from making discoveries before the US does.
Once a country discovers, for instance, the cure to all cancers, they will make billions if not trillions on it and will control who gets it around the world.
The US knows its waaaaay behind everyone else so they will try anything to catch up. I wouldnt be surprised if they start to demand full access to the Korean knowledge.
You are giving the Bush administration WAY too much credit.
Fundamental, Evangelical Christianity runs their scientific policies, period.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 4:09 am
by Massive Quasars
Both of you are wrong. Scientific progress is not stifled where media attention is not focused. There is a lot of research going on in the US of which there is both government and private funding, and of which many fundamentalists would object to.
There is a lack of media attention in these areas, and as a result the religious bandwagon of opposition doesn't follow through.
Let's not kid ourselves though, such media attention doesn't always result in popular opposition.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 5:08 am
by R00k
It does in this administration.
And they're picking them off one by one. Once gay/stemcell/abortion issues no longer trouble them, it's only a matter of time before the next 'unholy' progressive issue is brought to light to consolidate voting blocs.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemöller