Cell Division Reversed for the First Time

SubtleGuest writes "Gary J. Gorbsky, Ph.D., a scientist with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, has found a way to reverse the process of cell division. The discovery could have important implications for the treatment of cancer, birth defects and numerous other diseases and disorders. Gorbsky's findings appear in the April 13 issue of the journal Nature. "No one has gotten the cell cycle to go backwards before now," said Gorbsky. "This shows that certain events in the cell cycle that have long been assumed irreversible may, in fact, be reversible." In the lab, Gorbsky and his OMRF colleagues were able to control the protein responsible for the division process, interrupt and reverse the event, sending duplicate chromosomes back to the center of the original cell, an event once thought impossible. Here is a video of it happening."

Comments

How long until the religious forbid it?

[Cybert14]

It'll be either "playing god" or ending the life of some mass of atoms destined to become Christian.

NIH money to good use?

[Ogemaniac]

That is sure debatable. The primary product of NIH spending is new bioscience PhDs, and there is a tremendous glut of them. Like all government agencies, NIH's primary concern is wasting more money faster.

I would put my money on corporate bioscience research long before I would put in NIH, which has proven itself rather inept by unintentionally creating the 5-year post-doc.

Yuck

[ElephanTS]

If we got out and started a good war, fewer people would die of cancer! Think of Iraq as a big anti-cancer crusade.

That's really offensive not funny. 20000 tonnes of depeted uranium have been exploded in Iraq since 2003 and cancers and birth defects are rocketing. The microscopic particles have even travelled as far as the UK resulting in a 400% rise in airborne radioactivity during March2003. Don't joke about 200,000 innocent people (many children in that number) dying, you sick w*nker.