Harvard to Clone Human Embryos to Create Stem Cells

V

valich

Registered Senior Member
This is really great news for medical human biogenetics and the prospect of finding genetic cures for inherited diseases and defects. I thought congress banded stem cell research in the U.S. but apparently it was just a federal financing ban. Now we'll be able to properly advance our understanding of therapeutic cloning against inherited diseases or what is sometimes referred to as "gene-therapy vectors."

""We're in the forefront of this science and in some ways we're setting the bar for the rest of the world," said Dr. Leonard Zon of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute." http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/07/harvard.cloning.ap/index.html
 
Cool. I wonder how far away we can reasonably expect to see results from this (on other scientific fields and cures for diseases).

Your quote says they are at the forefront, but I wonder how true that is. I thought with the congress ban, other countries jumped ahead?

"The University of California, San Francisco, began efforts at embryo cloning a few years ago, only to lose a top scientist to England."
 
none if you clone an entire human, but if you can clone a liver, that means I can drink for twice as long.
 
We are at the forefront. The Koreans faltered by forging the data. The most exciting latest news is the regeneration of spinal chord injuries in rats (June 2006):

"Three months after the transplants, the investigators examined the rats for signs that the stem cell-derived neurons had survived and integrated with the nervous system. The rats that had received the full cocktail of treatments – transplanted motor neurons, rolipram, dbcAMP, and GDNF-secreting neural stem cells in the sciatic nerve – had several hundred transplant-derived axons extending into the peripheral nervous system, more than in any other group. The axons in these animals reached all the way to the gastrocnemius muscle in the lower leg and formed functional connections, called synapses, with the muscle. The rats showed an increase in the number of functioning motor neurons and an approximately 50 percent improvement in hind limb grip strength by 4 months after transplantation. In contrast, none of the rats given other combinations of treatments recovered lost function. "We found that we needed a combination of all of the treatments in order to restore function."
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/press_releases/pressrelease_embryonic_stem_cells.htm
 
leopold99 said:
what possible medical benefit can cloned humans be?
Click to expand...


Probably none, but we’re not talking about cloning whole new humans beings. :rolleyes: We’re talking about cloning human cells (viz. embryonic stem cells).

Do you understand the distinction?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top