Stem Cells Cultivated Free of Animal Contaminants

qewl writes "In a follow-up to this story, researchers at Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology have created a new method of growing human embryonic stem cells that has overcome the major obstacle of animal contaminants to their use for human treatments. As President George W Bush has restricted federal funding of this research to limited cell lines existing since 2001, scientists have strived to find ways to keep the lines pure. Irina Klimanskaya and colleagues at ACT grew the stem cells from the beginning on a cell and serum-free mixture called an extracellular matrix. "The importance of this work, of course, is that by eliminating contact with animal and human cells, you minimize the risk of contamination with pathogens that could be transmitted to patients and the population at large," Dr. Lanza at ATC said."

Comments

Re:Aborted babies are not human beings

[ckemp.org]

Stem cells aren't harvested from babies already aborted. They are harvested from human embryos, "aborted" for the purpose of harvesting. At that point, however, they really are no more than a handful of cells.

See the wiki.

Re:Interesting logic

[ckemp.org]

Perhaps... restricting relative to other countries?

Re:Interesting logic

[ckemp.org]

Right, well then try this or this, then. Either way, the point is the same: we aren't moving at the same speed as others.

The Immortal Cell

[Kraemahz]

The CEO of Advanced Cell Technologies (Dr. Michael West) has a book called the Immortal Cell. It's very good, I'd recommend it to anyone. This is a man who has been working his whole lifetime to find the ultimate cure to death and disease. It's a shame so few people recognise the long-term possibilities of stem cells.

Re:Interesting logic

[geneing]

Please, stop listening to "propaganda". Read the full story is below. I would say that if Gore became president the funding for stem cell research would be much less restricted.

From Wikipedia: "In 1995, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment, prohibiting federal funding of research that involves the use of a human embryo. Privately funded research lead to the breakthrough which made embryonic stem cell research possible in 1998, however, prompting the Clinton Administration to develop federal regulations for its funding. Preparations for this funding were completed in 2001."

Re:Interesting logic

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it was called something else before 2000. Since the name change to "stem-cell research fund", yes W was the first to fund it. Before him, 2 other presidents have funded it under a different name.

This has nothing to do with aborted babies

[qewl]

I have no idea what you're talking about, but embryonic stem cells are harvested from left over in-vitro cells (and harvested at the blastocyst stage) that would otherwise be discarded. This has nothing to do with abortion or fetuses!

Re:Interesting logic

[Leo McGarry]

I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. Embryonic stem cells come from living embryos that are killed in the process of extracting them.

You're been mislead by the meme that's been going around for about 4 years now that embryonic stem cell research depends on aborted babies, but that's untrue. The babies used for embryonic stem cell research come from two sources: Either they're created in vitro purely for their stem cells, or they're created as part of an ethically unsound "mass-production" technique for in vitro fertilization and are subsequently killed for their stem cells later.

Geron already has a patent on feeder-free stem cel

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't anything new.
Geron already has a patent on growing feeder-free stem cells.

ACT is just trying to get some attention.
but Geron is way ahead of them technically.

been following both companies for years now.

The original source of that joke

[kevinatilusa]

was a similar comment made by Lyndon Johnson ("If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim").

Interesting that people are now modifying that quote to talk about bias form the Liberal side now.

Haven't you even been listening?

[bloggins02]

One is destined to become a child

No, NO, NO. You don't even have to "open your mind" to understand this, just freakin' pay attention! The embryos we're talking about here are from failed IVF trials. They aren't destined to become children, they're destined to be incinerated.

the other is destined to be grown in a petri dish and then harvested like a crop of corn

Which is, obviously, much worse than burning it to a crisp and throwing it away, forgotten forever.

Re:Interesting logic

[Cat_Byte]

From here. In November 1998, two different groups of scientists reported the successful isolation and culturing of human embryonic stem cells. Generally referred to as pluripotent stem cells, these cells have the ability to develop into most of the specialized cells or tissues in the human body and can divide for indefinite periods in culture.

What was it called before? I'm curious since 2 presidents before Bush would be around 1986.