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Using Liquid Crystals to Guide Stem Cells
An anonymous reader writes "Liquid crystals, the same phase-shifting materials used to display information on cell phones, monitors and other electronic equipment, can also be used to control the differentiation of embryonic stem cells, Wisconsin researchers say. By using the crystals to mechanically strain the cells, they can prevent the indiscriminate (and unwanted) differentiation common in embryonic stem cell research and therapy. So when you want a bone cell, say, you don't end up with one from the kidney."
Sounds more like black voodoo magic wizardry to me. If God wants it to be a bone cell, they by His name, it will be a bone cell.
Embryonic stem cells are stems cells that are going to waste anyways. Left over from in vitro fertilization.
a sp
They are from the from the blastocyst stage,and about 128 cells.
also:
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter2.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...is to grow a new 19' LCD monitor. can we do that? No? Oh screw Bush and his policies
..from the cells of new life. (Yes, I believe life begins at fertilization).
Destroying life to build and enhance ours.
Sorry, but I don't want to be part of that brave new world.
...with having a spare kidney growing instead of a stomach cell? If it works, it'll help make NHS food edible. If it doesn't, it'll replace the NHS food altogether.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Makes you wonder if 100 years from now, after display technology has moved on to God-knows-what, people think LC technology primarily as some sort of biotechnology, sort of like we think of the radar device in our microwave as being primarily a cooking device, or the mirror as a safety device in cars. Then the moment is over, and you post whatever your view is on the personhood of embryonic stem cells.
"I could've sworn I was going to have my bone tissues replaced, but somehow my femur feels a lot like a kidney today..."
From in vitro fertilization. You can also get these cells from theraputic cloning. Take a good cloning cell (hair folicle or gut work best. Basically cells that divide most often into themselves.), take an egg cell (Or, if your really good, some studies have shown you can get adult stem cells to become a reproductive cell. Though that technology is a bit far behind to work for this example. Ten years from now -or a week, can never tell when an advancement like that will be made- then you could get as many egg cells from your own body, regardless of sex, and for a lot less pain of finding a donor and injecting her with a shitload of hormones, then plunging a harvesting needle into her abdomen... And it would be a "true" clone, with the mitotic DNA being the same.) Make a slit in egg, remove nucleus. Make a slit in donor cell, remove nucleus. Put donor nucleus in egg cell. Apply a small shock to promote healing and division. Wait a few days. Now you have perfect embrionic stem cells that are a match to your own DNA. Do this a few times to ensure you get at least one healthy sample.
Now you can take these cells, and make new neural tissue, for treating diseases like parkinsons. Or fit into a mold for a new bladder (they managed to make this in dogs), or use the technology of the bladder example, advance it in a few years, and you could make genetically identicle livers and kidneys. Or a new pancreus, good for some insulin goodness, and help the adult onset diabeties.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
...if the bone cell has a top hat and tap-dances to Live And Let Die.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I hope the following make it clear that stem cell research of any form does NOT need, or involve, the destruction of an embryo. Current hype is used specifically to harvest the votes of well-meaning, but maleducated populace.
IMACB (I Am A Cell Biologist), and I suggest you also look some of this up in your college-level bio text, or talk to a bio prof, they will love it:
1) Absolute majority of stem cells are not people, and cannot be grown into them.
2) The only stem cells that can be grown into a human being are the omnipotent cells created within the first 2-3 cell divisions past the fertilization.
3) Any cell harvested after the 8-cell stage becomes pluri-potent, and can grow into adult human tissue, but will NOT form some of the embryonic tissues, such as placenta, under any condition (no placenta-> no new human possible).
4) Stem cells harvested from tissues of adults are called adult stem cells (d'oh); these are multi-potent, meaning they can only make some, but not all, of the tissues of an adult. E.g. bone marrow stem cells will only make blood cells.
5) Under some conditions, adult SCs of one tissue type may be coaxed into turning into another developmentally related tissue type (e.g. skin SCs may be grown into neurons). Like cells in 3), these will never directly grow into another human.
In terms of usefulness:
1) Adult stem cells are hardest to control, and are least promising for research, but may help combat some types of cancer.
2) Pluripotent stem cells are easiest to manipulate and will have lots of applications in geriatrics, damage reconstruction, cancer, AIDS, etc. People I personally know have shown that these may be used to treat Parkinson's (in rats), as well as replace ischemia-induced brain damage (a group rebuilt a damaged brain in mice); clearly there are lots more things going on, but application to humans will require volunteers, changes in law, and massive infusions of cash.
Most importantly, acquisition of these cells does NOT require the destruction of embryos. One could harvest these cells, and the embryo will (to the best of our knowledge) develop normally. Vital extraction is more expensive, however, and does carry some risk to the embryo. Additionally, using such extracted cells will not destroy a human life, since a human cannot be grown from such cells, under any conditions.
3) Cells from before the 8-cell stage of embryo developments are as powerful as cells in 2), but are harder to control. While these may also be harvested with little side effects (can take one for research, leave 7, and these 7 will still grow into a normal baby), the one cell we take out can also be grown into a baby, hence some might call it "destroying life", but common sense here suggests the original embryo will survive, so "borrowing" that one cell is not killing life.
Bottom line? Stem cells do not need to involve destruction of embryos. We have the technology to only "borrow" some of the cells from a human embryo, and let it develop normally. The reason surplus embryos (from in vitro fertilization treatments and such) are currently destroyed after harvesting is because whoever donates those embryos does NOT want them back. It is trivial to just "borrow" a few cells and give back the embryos to implant.
Once again, stem cells !=destruction of life.
We do not dislike it because it is stupid, anti-scientific, etc. We dislike it because many of the most vocal followers are stupid, anti-scientific, etc AND they interfere with our lives. It's not the holding of opinions that bugs us, it's the actions.
I can get along fine with a Christian who minds his own business.