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Stem Cell Targeting Wins First Nobel of 2007
An anonymous reader writes "'Gene targeting,' which allows scientists to isolate stem cells in mice and reproduce genetically modified offspring, has won the Nobel Prize for medicine. Having allowed pathologists to better understand diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and cystic fibrosis for close to 20 years, the technology is just now getting its big day in the sun. From Nobel's full how-it-works: 'Their [i.e. ES cells] use as a vehicle for the transfer into the mouse genome of mutant alleles, either selected in cell culture or inserted into the cells via transformation with specific DNA fragments, has been presented as an attractive proposition. In many of these studies the use of pluripotential cells directly isolated from the embryos under study should have great advantages.'"
You keep shaking from that Parkinsons, buddy. I'll be feeding myself and walking. Enjoy!
Living With a Nerd
Please learn and understand the meaning of the word "contaminated" and the difference between "pluri" and "omni".
As I said in my blog entry about it ('bout 3:00 this morning when we heard about it), I am actually surprised it took this long as it would be hard to quantify how much science has been dependent upon Mario's work or even work that comprised prior Nobel Prize awards. Certainly my science going back to my dissertation has relied on transgenic techniques pioneered by Mario Capecchi and I owe much to him, but more importantly the doors for much discovery made in bioscience over the past several decades would simply not have been possible without Mario's pioneering work.
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your perspective will change significantly when you've been diagnosed with terminal cancer and offered an experimental treatment gleaned from this invaluable research.
I don't know anyone who opposes stem cell research in general. I have not even heard of anyone who opposes stem cell research in general. The only thing I have heard is opposition to killing people in order to heal other people. That is how those who oppose embryonic stem cell research see the situation. They view human embryos as human. Therefore they consider embryonic stem cell research to be comparable to the medical research done by the Nazis (in particular Dr Mengele). You may disagree with their view of human embryos as human, but it does not advance the discussion to mis characterize them as the "NO MEDDLIN' WITH GOD'S WORK" crowd. If we are ever going to make any progress on divisive issues, we need to address where we disagree. If you don't believe that human embryos are deserving of the same legal protections as post natal humans, let's have that discussion.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison