Slashdot Mirror
Playing God with Monsters
Howard writes "Horrified by "There Be Monsters Here" tales, some members of Congress called for a ban on DNA research in the mid '70s. Because those calls were rejected, millions of people around the world can now hope for DNA-based vaccines against AIDS, malaria and other deadly diseases that have destroyed lives, communities and nations. Here's an illustration: The name of Joseph DeRisi keeps coming up in connection with deadly diseases. No, he's not a modern-day Typhoid Mary. Just the opposite. The University of California, San Francisco researcher is using his own custom-built DNA microarrays to look inside the "minds" of some serious serial killers. The "minds" are genes, and his home-brewed gene chips helped solve the SARS mystery earlier this year. Now, DeRisi has chosen malaria as his next victim. For the complete commentary, please go to Howard Lovy's NanoBot."
This guy shouldn't have to waste his time on curing malaria. It could have been dealt with years ago. We had a prevention for it: DDT. At least, we did until environmentalists used bad science and hype to stop the use of DDT, an action which has killed millions of people.
For a biologist you don't seem to know much about stem cells. Last time I looked in a tissue culture flask you couldn't differentiate HEK293's into anything other than cancerous kidney cells which is what they are... The point of a stem cell is that it can differentiate into other cell types.
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
use stem cells on a regular basis (human embryonic kidney 293 cells (or HEK-293 for short)).
Uhhhh, check your facts....293s are most definately NOT stem cells. They are a cell line derived from embryonic kidney cells. They have been severely fucked with to make them grow in cell culture. They are immortalized (probably by introducing an oncoprotein which abrogates the limit on number of cell divisions) and are severely mutated. All these modifications may even cause them to have extra chromosomes. They are a fairly common laboratory cell line and have zero therapeutic benefit.
Stem cell lines are rare. Perhaps only a dozen exist and they are not immortalized. They were cultivated from human embryos and are pluripotent. That is, they are not already differentiated into kidney cells. In fact, they have the ability to differentiate into any other tissue type like neuronal, dental, or muscle. This could translate into disease treatments which benefit mankind significantly.
The Bush Administration has made it difficult to work with stem cells since they banned the culturing of new lines. Therefore, the few existing lines have to be doled out by a handful of laboratories. This is very difficult for just a few labs and requires a lot of paperwork. Furthermore, since the lines aren't immortal the supply is tightly regulated.
-DD
I beg to differ. The HEK293 cell line can hardly be considered a "stem cell". It is transformed by adenovirus DNA, i.e., it is a tumor cell, and is not diploid, hypotriploid according to the ATCC. You seem to be confusing embryonic and stem cell. Embryonal stem cells are diploid and are not cancerous.
? vi ew=ce,916189,CRL-1573&text=hek293&max=20
http://www.atcc.org/SearchCatalogs/longview.cfm
HEK293 was derived in 1977 or thereabouts from the kidney of a human embryo (I assume because of the name). To immortalize the cells, Graham et al made the cells incorporate (eat, transfected) DNA isolated from an adenovirus that they knew caused tumors. You almost never heard about scientists chopping up human embryos back then.
Embryos have become much more valuable and interesting due to stem cell technology. An explosive growth in the use and storage of stem cells poses novel legal issues in addition to ethical issues. Hence the current political interest in the use of embryos. The current limitations are quite restrictive and resemble limitations imposed when recombinant DNA technology became possible. The limitations on rDNA research lasted about five years, the dark ages (73 to 78 or 79). They were pretty much abolished by the mid 80s. I suspect that the enormous health benefits possible from stem cell research will lead to a swift (>5 years) relaxation of the restrictions.