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MIT Team Creates Cancer Stem Cells
MIT scientists and colleagues have found a way in the lab to create large amounts of cancer stem cells, the cells that can initiate tumors. The work, reported in the August 13 issue of Cancer Cell, could be a boon to researchers who study these elusive cells. Labs could easily grow them for use in experiments.
...of you know what.
Living With a Nerd
Now we just need to to infect the top seven world leaders with it and we'll have a cure. (MAD TV reference)
Might work as a covert assassination weapon if they can get hold of the mark's DNA and create cell lines.
-b.
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
"No good will come of this".
... oh my.
:)
I got images of various "Resident Evil" scenes with zombies flooding the Northeast US and
On a serious note, kudos to the lab geeks at MIT! You guys do some fantastic work
Is it just me, or did MIT just create a new biological weapon? Now, I'm not a medical researcher, but it's my understanding that stem cells are useful in that they can create or recreate any structure in the body. Couldn't this be modified (by terrorists) to inject / infect people with a cancerous stem cell that spreads and infects? Or, is this not scientifically possible?
Terrance: What are you doing?
Scott: I am wishing cancer upon you.
Phillip: What?
Scott: I am giving you cancer with my mind.
Phillip: No, don't give me cancer!
and look what happened....
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
We're trying desperately to find *cures* for cancer, not to create cancer!
This actually brings up an interesting idea.
I've always been a proponent of the idea that scientists were the true moral crusaders of our age, not protesters, demonstrators, and certainly not religious zealots.
Think of it this way - when scientists have perfected a means for reproducing reliable and testable human cancer cells in a laboratory, there will no longer be any need to use lab rats in cancer research. Cancer will be closer to being cured, and rats will be spared. What has the Animal Liberation Front done on that magnitude, apart from burn medical research facilities?
I imagine that when we are able to create vehicles that produce no pollution, it will be considered excessive and morally repugnant to drive gas guzzlers. I imagine that we have developed a means of engineering meat that it will be considered immoral to kill living animals to get it. The idea here is that immorality is scaled and determined in terms of gross excess of what is necessary for survival, and that our technology makes survival easier (thus altering the scale).
Inserting [insert witty signature here] here does not constitute a witty signature.
"Hey we made cancer airborne and contagious! You're welcome! We're Science. We're all about coulda not shoulda."
- Patton Oswalt - Werewolves & Lollipops
slashdot trolls to point out that the team's lead researcher Dr. Tan Ince is a Turkish Muslim (and probably out to steal some burger-flipper's jerb). Just saying.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
Hooray! Try new Instant Cancer! 50% faster than regular cancer. Available at your grocer's dairy case.
Russell Crowe: Well, we couldn't find cancer, but we found a man with cancer. *Punches old man* Take that, cancer! And that! *Punches again*
Eureka! All we have to do to cure cancer is take this machine and reverse the polarity!!!
I'm not sure why, but I found this funny enough to laugh at. --- Cancer cells, buy them today. They're ammonia and fat-free now.
What's the point of that??? Ok, now I have to leave my office... Time for a cigarrete!!
...that bringing more cancer cells into the world makes people happy.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Is anyone taking bets on how long before the first report of a critic of Vladimir Putin feeling a pinprick on the subway, followed some months later by cancer and death?
Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
So does this mean that they will be able to grow new organs from these cells but those will already have cancer and will only be somewhat useful? I know, RTFA.
If I went around claiming I was an emperor...they'd put me away!
Oh my gosh! We are just ever so sorry those flu shots got contaminated
with fast growing cancer stem cells. Here, here's a tin foil hat to protect you.
your friend,
Hippocrates
please type the word in this image DEVELOPS
This seems like a better option.
Well, the difference is that these are cancer stem cells. Cancer seeds, not cancer. From the article:
MIT scientists and colleagues have found a way to create in the lab large amounts of cancer stem cells, or cells that can initiate tumors.
If you could find a way to kill the seeds, then perhaps all the other techniques we are working on to kill the tumors will become irrelevant. Maybe the seeds are easier to kill than the tumors they sprout into. Prevention is the best medicine, after all.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
even these new stem cells.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
How do you sleep at night>
On top of a pile of money, with many beautiful women
HPV and other naturally occurring viruses cause cancer quite nicely. Of course, if you want a viral weapon, why not use Ebola which you don't have to wait years to see an effect? I realize mad scientists come in all sorts of colors and flavors, but killing people with cancer seems awfully slow (unless your country has a cure for cancer and others don't).
It might take months or years to kill.
In that sense its a lot like AIDS was before there were any drugs. You knew you had a fatal time bomb in you but didnt quite know when and how.
Isn't that, lose your shirt?
But wouldn't it be better to do the opposite? I mean hell all we need is a few packs of smokes, a touch of this chemical, a touch of that chemical, and a pinch of high-dosage radiation and we can make our own cancer. It's unmaking cancer that is the trick no?
Hope is the currency of fools
And here I was worried it would never happen.
Why should I argue rationally with someone being irrational? I'll just mock them instead.
Tasmanian devils are being wiped out by a transmissible cancer. And dogs have some a similar cancer STD that been around for hundreds of years. Proof of concept right there that tailoring isn't necessary.
for this is actually to solve the problem of human death because cancer cells are for all intents and purposes, immune to death since they block the shortening of the telomere with in their own cell structures, I can't remember what it is called but supposedly the science behind this would be to look at applying this ability to ourselves to block the degradation of our own telomeres, thus preventing old age death.
Jonathanjk.com
Like polonium?
Depending on who you are, there may be benefits to expensive and difficult.
I wonder if this is hard to test for.
I thought with the HeLa cells we got all we need? Immortal cancer cells that spread and divide ad infinitum.
Is cancer some sort of infection? I thought it's a mutation gone wrong?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In creating these cells, what kind of cancer cells are permitted, and which are taboo? If we start creating an endless supply of, oh, say, neural cancer cells, will these be used solely for cancer research? Seems these could be used in biotech apps, such neural circuits might be mass produced, with a cumulative effect on processing power. While it's farfetched to suppose this might acquire intelligence, let alone, sentience, it isn't so far off to suppose someone using these things to "augment" existing technology or even biology to obtain a percieved advantage, whatever it may be. This could bring the scandals in professional sports to a whole new level. "But your honor, it CAN'T be illegal, it IS, after all, his own adrenal tissue, isn't it?" "Memory problems? How about the new NEURALMAX upgrade kit, and for a limited time, it comes complete with a set of backup experiences (mnemonic keys packaged separately)"
Oh, yeah, these being cancer cells, they'd of course have to include a disclaimer; "WARNING, use of this product may result in death, take only as directed by a physician"
If someone is really intent on taking out a certain target (thus committing the resources), but even more intent on causing no collateral damage (unlike the Litvinenko hit), this method might make a bit of sense. Spend a lot of money, maybe you kill the guy or maybe you don't, but you don't harm anyone else either way. I can't think of any situations where this is less resource-intensive than assassination, but maybe Tom Clancy can.
Mailing Anthrax would take a very large box indeed.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
...until the Patton Oswalt quote to headline the follow-up: "Hey guys! We made cancer airborne and contagious. We're science! All about coulda, not about shoulda."
So agroup of scientists have inserted some genes into a primary cell and created a cancer cell line????? The just reproved that cancer requires inititation AND promotion. Lame
What's up my brothers?