Brain tissues from Stem Cells

MrBrian

http://www.stemcure.com/


Interesting site, enjoy!

blondieblue227

Total Recall!!

blondieblue227

'WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.'


YEY!! i hope he does it.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-09-15-26-34

LaterDays

They don't use aborted fetuses for ESCR, they use in vitro fertilized eggs that are developed into blastocysts. When a woman goes to get in vitro, they fertilize hundreds of eggs, then use only the "best" of those in the implantation technique... all the others are kept frozen and eventually discarded. These "frozen embryos" are the ones researchers develop into stem cell lines. It may be possible someday to "reverse engineer," say, skin cells to pluripotent stem cells, thus bifurcating the entire need to use human embryos in the first place... but the fertilized eggs that we're destroying now for ESCR are still going to "die." They'll just get tossed out rather than utilized for groundbreaking research. One of the (many) major misconceptions out there re: ESCR...

LaterDays

blondieblue227 wrote:

'WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.'


YEY!! i hope he does it.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-09-15-26-34

Bills have passed through Congress to authorize federal funding of embryonic stem cell research... Bush just vetoed them and Congress didn't have the support required to override the veto. All Obama has to do is *not* veto the bill, but sign it into law... something he has assured us many times he is eager to do. And with the democrats having overwhelming control of both the House and Senate, even had McCain been elected, Congress probably could've pulled the people together for veto-proof power.

It'll happen, and it'll happen soon. About damn time.

LaterDays

MrBrian wrote:

Good point,

I'm against cloned meat and think it's wrong to not only clone animals for human consumption. But it's even worse that it has been approved that they do not have to label the cloned meat as 'cloned' and will be able to sell it to consumers as normal.

I don't understand this thinking. A "clone" is nothing more than an identical twin (with a delayed conception)... the same genetic makeup, but an entirely different creature. It's physically no different than the original animal, so why should it be labeled as if it were? Cloning a cow for human consumption isn't any different than traditionally breeding cattle for human consumption, other than the fact that w/ cloning you can choose to reproduce only superior-quality animals. But by putting it on the label, customers who don't know enough about science will think that it's somehow dangerous or different, when in fact just the opposite is true. It's an unnecessary burden on the manufacturer... cloned meat, like GM food, has to pass the same rigorous standards (USDA, EPA, FDA) that every other food on the market has to pass. Labeling requirement in the US focus on what the food consists of (its intrinsic qualities), rather than how the food is made. A good approach, imo.

Clones are Frankensteins... they're identical twins (like my 10-year-old brothers).

MrBrian

If you read the latest on it, enough evidence shows that cloned meat is not safe enough to be sold, infact its still years away. This is coming from the mouths of people who raise the cloned animals.

I made a thread about this before. They themselves are shocked that this has been approved.

Do you have any idea how many cloned animals just get sick and die? And people don't know why!

The standards are not high enough.

LaterDays

MrBrian wrote:

I'm not sure but what is the feeling within America about it? If they had a vote 'yes stem cells' or 'no stem cells'...are you confident that the America people would be for it enough for it to have a chance in the mainstream?

Or would they back away from it because, I dunno, it's evil?

I disagree w/ the posters that suggest Americans would vote "no" on stem cell research. Abortion remains a legally protected right and the anti-abortion movement hasn't been able to garner a majority of support since before Roe. Studies on ESCR that I've seen on ESCR, but am not willing to take the time to find right now, have illustrated that an overwhelming consensus in America believes that the research should get done... the main question that's debated is whether or not the federal government should allocate tax dollars to funding it. And even on that end, most of the public opinion polls I've seen have shown the American people answering "yes" to that question as well. The religious right has less numbers than the loudness of their voice would indicate... not to say they are a large faction, because they certainly are, but I don't believe they represent anywhere close to 50%. My parents are both Christian conservatives (my dad is a Methodist minister in Tulsa, OK), and they both adamantly promote ESCR (my dad's sister has Alzheimer's, which doesn't exactly hurt the cause). My mom even considers herself pro-choice. So being Christian doesn't necessarily equal being fundamentalists, and there are a lot of Christian republicans who are in full support of E. stem cell research. Don't know a single liberal who isn't.

Just my experience though...

LaterDays

MrBrian wrote:

If you read the latest on it, enough evidence shows that cloned meat is not safe enough to be sold, infact its still years away. This is coming from the mouths of people who raise the cloned animals.

I made a thread about this before. They themselves are shocked that this has been approved.

Do you have any idea how many cloned animals just get sick and die? And people don't know why!

The standards are not high enough.

I'm a patent attorney, so a lot of the new cloning/bioengineering techniques come across my desk. I haven't kept up with the regulatory status of a lot of the new foods, so I'll defer on that issue. I have however seen the field studies that are required to get a new food on the market, and have complete trust in the American regulatory scheme. No a blind trust, as I realize anyone is capable of making enormous mistakes... but at the same time, the biotech industry knows it's on rather soft-footing w/ respect to GM foods and cloning techniques in general... that it's public support is, at best, tentative. The USDA/FDA recognizes this as well, and the fact that it would only take one isolated health scare to bankrupt most of these corporations, at least in the US/European market, is a pressing concern. It's all about $, of course, and the drivers of the industry know that unsafe food will destroy the future of the business. They're very, very careful. Look at the EU's approach, for instance... that's something that gets brought to my attention a lot during the course of my work. European's don't trust their government's food regulation anymore, due to a handful of incidences, and now that entire commercial market, from the export-biotech end anyway, is basically shut down.

Like I said, I don't know that much about the current state of cloned meat... the non-medical biotech work I've done (I'm mostly see physical engineering and space science though, due to my background) typically involves 2nd-generation agricultural biotech crops (drought resistant crops, plant pharmaceuticals, etc)... so I was speaking more abstractly about the science behind cloning itself. Whether the cloning is ethical wrong in and of itself, and whether we push the end products of cloning to the marketplace too prematurely, are entirely different questions. I was speaking more to the first, you seem to be speaking more to the second. And on that point, i totally agree -- we should set the bar very, very high... not just for GM or cloned foods, but for any new food in general that isn't "GRAS" (Generally Recognized As Safe).

MrBrian

Yes I agree. But keep in mind that just because something is unsafe, it still can be passed.

You know, a simple case of bad long term business. Anyway, like we both agree the standards need to be raised. But it seems that the standards are getting lower.

Just look at the standards for even Organic foods. It's dropping, or was going to the last I checked on it. But....I'm not sure how they would be able to lable the meat cloned or not, I mean in many cases the meat could be mixed. Parts of a cloned and non cloned animal. Then comes the DNA testing to check.

I'm currently reading up on IdentiGEN. You following any of that?

This whole thing is pretty amazing and interesting, I guess we can just wait to see what happens.

blondieblue227

I don’t want to see cloning food get lumped in with curing MS, CP etc.


from my cartoon clipping collection.......
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/blondieblue227/2-1.jpg

MrBrian

BERLIN (Reuters) – A bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has left an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, German researchers said.

When they found a donor with the mutation, they used that bone marrow to treat the patient. Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.

"As of today, more than 20 months after the successful transplant, no HIV can be detected in the patient," the clinic said in a statement.

"We performed all tests, not only with blood but also with other reservoirs," Schneider told a news conference.

"But we cannot exclude the possibility that it's still there."

The researchers stressed that this would never become a standard treatment for HIV. Bone marrow stem cell transplants are rigorous and dangerous and require the patient to first have his or her own bone marrow completely destroyed.

Patients risk death from even the most minor infections because they have no immune system until the stem cells can grow and replace their own.

HIV has no cure and is always fatal. Cocktails of drugs can keep the virus suppressed, sometimes to undetectable levels. But research shows the virus never disappears -- it lurks in so-called reservoirs throughout the body.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081113/hl_nm/us_aids_stemcells_1

decides2dream

LaterDays wrote:

Bills have passed through Congress to authorize federal funding of embryonic stem cell research... Bush just vetoed them and Congress didn't have the support required to override the veto. All Obama has to do is *not* veto the bill, but sign it into law... something he has assured us many times he is eager to do. And with the democrats having overwhelming control of both the House and Senate, even had McCain been elected, Congress probably could've pulled the people together for veto-proof power.

It'll happen, and it'll happen soon. About damn time.

yet another reason to be 'yay obama'....you bet!
and it is true!





and i know that many stem cell embryos were from IVF, but many right-wing christians are anti-IVF as well. so there is a lot of *stigma* attached to stem cell research, whehter it is actually rooted in reality or not.

blondieblue227

decides2dream wrote:

so there is a lot of *stigma* attached to stem cell research, whehter it is actually rooted in reality or not.

exactlly.

______

i watched 'body of war' the other day and was reminded of one more hypocriticy. Reps rally to sign up more troops but veto treatment that will fix the broken ones.

….ahh, gotta love this country.

__________

'Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.'

Wow!

see, i knew there were all kinds of 'cures' out there not being reported on. damn, this cover-up is so fucked up.

decides2dream

blondieblue227 wrote:

exactlly.

______

i watched 'body of war' the other day and was reminded of one more hypocriticy. Reps rally to sign up more troops but veto treatment that will fix the broken ones.

….ahh, gotta love this country.

__________

'Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.'

Wow!

see, i knew there were all kinds of 'cures' out there not being reported on. damn, this cover-up is so fucked up.

yep.



i definitely have to watch that! it's on our netflix queue.



just like everything else, frustratingly....acceptance takes TIME. however, with this new development, one amongst many i am sure....it can only HELP remove the social/religious stigmas and yes, one step closer to acceptance.

MrBrian

decides2dream wrote:

just like everything else, frustratingly....acceptance takes TIME. however, with this new development, one amongst many i am sure....it can only HELP remove the social/religious stigmas and yes, one step closer to acceptance.

Not if people still think that God created Aids to punish gays, so stem cells is just another tool of the devil to help the gays....

decides2dream

MrBrian wrote:

Not if people still think that God created Aids to punish gays, so stem cells is just another tool of the devil to help the gays....

oh well...fuck, you got me there.
so much for hope.





well, hopefully.......even THAT can change.
yes, i'm a dreamer......:D

blondieblue227

MrBrian wrote:

Not if people still think that God created Aids to punish gays, so stem cells is just another tool of the devil to help the gays....

smartass.

I glad you said that thou. Because while we are talking about stem cells here there’s also a chat going on in disaboom about it. A disability chat forum. A few disabled people will stand by religion …….and Reps, tooth and nail even thou they don’t serve the needs of the disabled community. It’s really interesting.

Slowly I think people are realizing how far we’ve come in technology. Technology and science have advanced so far in some aspects it makes religion laughable. So slowly….I can’t bear it!

Add ‘Religulous’ to your rent list too.