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Human Astrocytes Developed From Stem Cells
RogerRoast writes "Astrocytes are the most ubiquitous cells in the brain. They perform critical support function to the neurons. These cells are also implicated in several human brain disorders. The U of Wisconsin researchers developed a method to create these cells from stem cells. According to the lead author Dr Zhang, 'not a lot of attention has been paid to these cells because human astrocytes have been hard to get, but we can make billions or trillions of them from a single stem cell.' The technology developed by the Wisconsin group lays a foundation to make all the different species of astrocytes. It may be possible to genetically engineer them to mimic disease so that previously inaccessible neurological conditions can be studied in the lab."
is News for Nerds.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
If God wanted man to fly, he'd have given him wings.
If God wanted man to travel outside the planet, he'd have given him the ability to breath in space.
If God wanted man to live through a heart attack, he'd have given him an internal defibrillator.
If God wanted man to travel the oceans, he'd have given him flippers.
Seems to me that what "God wants" is an inherently outdated list of things that we deliberately break, through choice, every day.
Basically, if "God wants" me to do something, chances are I'm not going to do it - not out of some inherent disobedience but because doing those things is SENSIBLE and pushes the human race forward.
Human Atrocities Developed from Stem Cells
surely I can think of a few.
I need a -0.666 WTF? moderation option.
Now can we fix stupid?
If God wanted man to fly, he'd have given him wings. If God wanted man to travel outside the planet, he'd have given him the ability to breath in space. If God wanted man to live through a heart attack, he'd have given him an internal defibrillator. If God wanted man to travel the oceans, he'd have given him flippers.
Here's another one for the list, but with opposite implication:
"If God wanted us to go around naked, we'd be born that way" - Oscar Wilde.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
"If God wanted us to go around naked, we'd be born that way" - Oscar Wilde.
Pedantic mode on: can you please provide a proper citation? Like what interview, article, book, etc.
(are you sure is Oscar Wilde?)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Well, google tells me it might be Mark Twain :
Quote page
Pretty soon I'll be able to implant a ganglia into my penis, literally giving it a "mind of its own."
Hey, they've only been inaccessible because we've been unwilling to do to a few unlucky people what we do to lab animals all the time: put them down and harvest their diseased brains for research. It's for the Common Good of Man!
You're missing the tie-breaker: Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve. This loops from your 10th vertebrae down into the chest cavity, under the aorta, and back up to the larynx.
The only answers to this from religion are either "bad design" implying that God is fallible and can make mistakes, or "God works in mysterious ways / is testing our faith" which are thought-terminating cliches.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Astrocytes are linked with the repair of spinal cord injuries. And as of 2008 stem cells can be made from pretty much any normal adult cell http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2008/0810/081030/full/stemcells.2008.142.html .
The possibilities for the rehab of spinal cord injury patients is enough to make this an easy application of stem cell research, which might just earn the stem cell researchers some much needed good publicity from Washington.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the importance of astrocytes. I didn't know that they are linked to certain neurological diseases. But at least for information processing they seem to be quite unimportant. There is a study that was published in Science where the researchers basically knocked out the signaling of all astrocytes in mice and the behaviour of the animals changed only marginally. A summary of this debate was published last year in an open access article in Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101110/full/468160a.html
If God wanted Man to have stem cells, he'd have mentioned that someplace in Genesis.
I don't know, growing a human from an adult's rib - sure sounds like transdifferentiation of hematopoietic stem cells to me. Or did god just happen to choose one of the tissues that contain adult stem cells?
sic transit gloria mundi
I've done some websearches on the matter, and 1) the quote comes around phrased in various slightly different ways, all attributed to Oscar Wilde, 2) there is no source to be found for the quote(s) at all and 3) the quote(s) are also attributed to various other people, including Marc Twain, all also unsourced.
I also think the quip is so obvious that it must have existed almost as long as the "if the gods had wanted us to do X they would have given us Y" argument. And "the best way to sound authoritative, is to drop a well-known name." - Benjamin Franklin
He did. However, our ancestors didn't understand it and removed that part, assuming it was some nonsense someone smuggled in. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
The article linked to says both. Shame on slashdot not being more specific as there's a world of difference between adult stem cells and embryonic in behavior post creation and transformation. Anybody know what the percentages were and the success of each type as far as remaining "safe" after the creation?
Proper citation? If you are not going to go look for it, then how would you know if the answer posted is correct or not?
It was Kirk: Captain's log, stardate 3715.3
In this case I don't think it matters who said it or when. The point is still a valid one.
If you wanted to correct him and say some other person said that and then give a citation, go for it.
Don't give a citation..
A God just happen to choose. Sounds a lot like chance to me. I will worship the random chance god too.
This type of activity is entirely against God's will, and the sinners will be punished. This is exactly why people hate us.
ahh yes, quantum probability God.
He's a weird one.
Is a symptom of the death of these cells.
I read this as "human atrocities developed from stem cells".
Is there anything stem cells can't do?
Yeah, but Uncyclopedia says it's Oscar Wilde.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
For showing us the true nature of faith. http://twitpic.com/5162pm
I'm with you, that's just crazy talk. If ya don't understand the article just say so.
This aint Daytona and you aint Dale Earnhardt. So stop trying to draft on Interstate 40.
I thought they said "Acolytes". Was I the only Warcraft player to immediately wonder what kind of magic this breed of Undead could do?
I8-D
"make billions or trillions of them from a single stem cell" --isn't this what cancer does? I would be wary of playing with this s**t.
For a moment I thought we'd finally found the cause for the demented and delusional thought-patterns that cause Space Nuttery.
Oh yeah? Well my dad can beat up your dad!
If I can just reach out with my words and touch a butthole, just one, it will all be worth it.
Are you an idiot? Of couse God had to move the fucking nerve so it wouldn't get hit when Reagan was shot. If he can't speak, how can he be the Great Communicator?
If I can just reach out with my words and touch a butthole, just one, it will all be worth it.
The U of Wisconsin researchers developed a method to create these cells from stem cells.
Alright, not trolling here, just genuinely curious. My understanding, at last via information gleaned from Slashdot and other news-oriented sites, was that the US government contributes very little (relatively speaking) to the field of Stem Cell research; not only that, but they have tons of laws in place to complicate and/or hamstring such research, and the research is politically unpopular. It sounds like the USA should more or less fall off the face of the map in terms of groundbreaking Stem Cell research...
Why, then, does it also seem like a significant number of breakthroughs in the Stem Cell research field is still occurring in the States? Is the media overblowing the neglect, does USA research just persevere in the face of adversity, or is there some alternative system (patents, universities, academia, etc.) set up that allows us to sidestep these seemingly-crippling obstacles?
If the political taboo was alleviated and the restrictions removed, would we do even better? Just curious to hear some thoughts on the subject...
Holocaust.
I misread the article title as "Human Atrocities Developed From Stem Cells".
I call these "My Dice".
I drank what? -- Socrates
Remember, wherever you go there you are.
Wow, you put out that strawman and look how all the suckers showed up to burn it for you!
very nice, now please cover yourself. :)
If you wanted to correct him and say some other person said that and then give a citation, go for it.
I only asked for info (maybe in the name of an exaggerated precision... this is why is called pedantic mode, you know?).
I googled the phrase, couldn't decide the origin, took my chances and asked: maybe somebody actually knows for sure.
Following you on the "straw man" slope: why are you so inclined to take a question as a covert action of casting doubt on the message or poster? Can't questions be just that: questions and nothing more?
(how does it feel to have words put in your mouth?)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I found it interesting that while the article (second link) claims that these can be induced from both "embryonic and induced human" stem cells, the abstract of the paper itself (first link) names only "human pluripotent stem cells" (ie "adult stem cells") and makes no mention of embryonic cells.
Both links refer to the one study, by the same people, so why does the second mention embryonic stem cells when the paper itself (or at least, the abstract) does not?
Sounds like dirty scientific politics to me.
I only asked for info
And it was a fair question. In fairness to you, I did search a bit but did not find an attribution with a proper citation.
It's one of those quotes I've come across many times on the web and did not bother to try tracking down before. Most places attribute it to Oscar Wilde, and one or two attribute it to Mark Twain. Perhaps it has been attributed to others also. It's certainly a pithy and witty comment which one could imagine either of those gentlemen coming up with. However, it is not listed among the quotes attributed to either of them in any of the compilations I checked (wikiquotes, brainyquotes, bartleby, etc.), some of which do cite sources.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
You can already buy commercial hES-derived astrocytes -- for in vitro use. Here is a link. http://www.invitrogen.com/site/us/en/home/Products-and-Services/Applications/Cell-Culture/primary_cell_culture/Neuronal-Cell-Culture/human-astrocytes.html
Re: the medical applications, Life Technologies (which owns Gibco/Invitrogen) is already looking at human therapeutics for spinal cords using these astroglial cells. I'm not sure where in the process of those studies things are, but it was mentioned in the same Nat Biotech journal as the Zhang lab paper.
The Zhang lab is extremely good, and I like this paper a lot. Particularly the basic research / developmental biology / cell biology angles that industry doesn't usually look at. Cool supplemental movies too. But 6 months to differentiate a cell type that I can order online? Hmmm...
Signed, :)
Biology Nerd Who Should Probably Get a Slashdot Account