[| I, CWAS |]

I still can't believe people are so dogmatic as to hold joys such as this back due to cultism. hopefully we will have embryonic stem cell clinical trials on a massive worldwide scale soon.

A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord bloodHwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.


Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea (news - web sites) researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy.


They said it was the world's first published case in which a patient with spinal cord injuries had been successfully treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood.


Though they cautioned that more research was needed and verification from international experts was required, the South Korean researchers said Hwang's case could signal a leap forward in the treatment of spinal cord injuries.


The use of stem cells from cord blood could also point to a way to side-step the ethical dispute over the controversial use of embryos in embryonic stem-cell research.


"We have glimpsed at a silver lining over the horizon," said Song Chang-Hoon, a member of the research team and a professor at Chosun University's medical school in the southwestern city of Kwangju.


"We were all surprised at the fast improvements in the patient."


Under TV lights and flashing cameras, Hwang stood up from her wheelchair and shuffled forward and back a few paces with the help of the frame at the press conference here on Thursday.


"This is already a miracle for me," she said. "I never dreamed of getting to my feet again."


Medical research has shown stem cells can develop into replacement cells for damaged organs or body parts. Unlocking that potential could see cures for diseases that are at present incurable, or even see the body generate new organs to replace damaged or failing ones.


So-called "multipotent" stem cells -- those found in cord blood -- are capable of forming a limited number of specialised cell types, unlike the more versatile "undifferentiated" cells that are derived from embroyos.


However, these stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood have emerged as an ethical and safe alternative to embryonic stem cells.


Clinical trials with embryonic stem cells are believed to be years away because of the risks and ethical problems involved in the production of embryos -- regarded as living humans by some people -- for scientific use.


In contrast, there is no ethical dimension when stem cells from umbilical cord blood are obtained, according to researchers.


Additionally, umbilical cord blood stem cells trigger little immune response in the recipient as embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings.


For the therapy, multipotent stem cells were isolated from umbilical cord blood, which had been frozen immediately after the birth of a baby and cultured for a period of time.





Then these cells were directly injected to the damaged part of the spinal cord.

"Technical difficulties exist in isolating stem cells from frozen umbilical cord blood, finding cells with genes matching those of the recipient and selecting the right place of the body to deliver the cells," said Han Hoon, president of Histostem, a government-backed umbilical cord blood bank in Seoul.

Han teamed up with Song and other experts for the experiment.

They say that more experiments are required to verify the outcome of the landmark therapy.

"It is just one case and we need more experiments, more data," said Oh Il-Hoon, another researcher.

"I believe experts in other countries have been conducting similar experiments and accumulating data before making the results public."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... sis_skorea

[Russkie]

I can't wait till they start human cloning and gene manipulation and it's not a joke.

[| I, CWAS |]

I can't wait till they start human cloning and gene manipulation and it's not a joke.

I'm there with you Tranhumanism, still has a few kinks in it, but it can be worked out. There is a reason religious people oppose it. I think the raelians have a nice grasp. Imagine if we cloned, and had a mixture of clones, colonize another planet, while earth was destroyed, anyway thats just a nice take on the beginning of life, which stems from the big bang. It throws religion on its head, when man begins making man (after all they still manage to bring creationism into play with sexual procreation)

[Russkie]

I was thinking of more along the lines of upgrading our genes. More muscles, more Brain capacity and processing speed, extend the life line. Or how about create a new super human race.

[| I, CWAS |]

I was thinking of more along the lines of upgrading our genes. More muscles, more Brain capacity and processing speed, extend the life line. Or how about create a new super human race.

I'm thinking about an upgrade, I prefer the Neo-Human, as evolution is aided by science. In philosophy this is becoming widely accepted, that evolution is no longer measured in the million of years, or millennia or epcoh, but by generation, we can see the new proto evolution before our eyes, as we are soon to adapt, to Genetically modified crops, and teh internet age, which effects information/education, therby altering the courses of many humans, and these are only 2 general ones. However our bodies and minds, our outdated, and we need to up the capacity, first step is genetic altering to prevent inate cancers and diseases and such.

[Garibaldi]

I don't see what there is to fear. Even if the idea of Genetic Superhumans does become a reality, there won't be a major step from altering stem cells to creating a weak virus that has the same effect on regular humans.

[bradley]

yes there will! the biology of stem cells and virii are not at all alike! apples and oranges, if you like.

[Napuljun]

I still can't believe people are so dogmatic as to hold joys such as this back due to cultism. hopefully we will have embryonic stem cell clinical trials on a massive worldwide scale soon.

So do I.

This useless religous conservatism reminds me about an episode a few years ago in Malta. A couple gave birth to siamese twins and one of them was withotu a heart so it was dependent on the twin for blood pressure. The Church authorities told the couple to leave the babibes as they are as it was God's decision for the babies to be born like that. So the babies both died within a week when there was the chance to save one of them.

[Garibaldi]

yes there will! the biology of stem cells and virii are not at all alike! apples and oranges, if you like.

For the most part you are correct, but RNA is RNA. If stem cells can be altered to create superhumans, then the transmutational genes can be placed inside of a virus(one similar to AAV, most likely) and used to spur transmutation in normal, full grown humans.

[bradley]

RNA is far too fascinating and varied for you to dismiss it so simply; and besides, i fail to see the relevance of virii to stem cells, and vice versa; structurally they are completely distinct; their nature is completely different; any theoretical clinical usage would be completely different. Both potentially useful, yes; e.g. the use of a virus to give rise to retroviral genes that produce an anti-cancer drug inside our very own cells, or whatever; it would be hard however to create a superhuman using stem cells though. Their clinical usage, it seems, will be mainly in regeneration, e.g. the replacement of neurones and other such slow-reproduction, i.e. irreplaceable, tissues.

a stem cell is just a 'seed', as it were, for the regeneration of a tissue. Wehn 'watered' with the appropriate growth factors, it divides, differentiates and eventually regenerates a patch of a tissue.

So I still fail to see how these two technologies could somehow be related in any but the vaguest of ways.