Stem Cell Research -- Good News on TWO Fronts!

On November 20, 2007, it was announced that a major breakthrough had occurred almost simultaneously on two continents, with respect to stem-cell research. It looks as though, in years to come, thousands of labs will have the capability to reprogram skin cells to function in much the same way as embryonic stem cells.

Two research groups have found different genetic recipes to give ordinary skin cells the power to turn into virtually any kind of human tissue, just as embryonic stem cells do.

"If the recipes live up to their promise, they could someday end the [pseudo-]ethical debate over embryonic stem cell research — and usher in an era when a person's own cells could be manipulated to mend a broken spinal cord, heal a damaged heart or regenerate other failing tissues.

"But in their current state, the recipes are too risky for disease treatment, and even the scientists behind the latest studies cautioned that therapies are still years away. In announcing their discoveries, they emphasized that much more research still needs to be done on stem cells that have been derived from human embryos."

"'It's not the time to say human embryonic stem cell research is dead,' James Thomson, a biologist at the Univerity of Wisconsin at Madison, who is behind a study appearing in the journal Science, told msnbc.com.

"Kyoto University's Shinya Yamanaka, the principal author of a study published by the journal Cell, echoed that view, saying it would be "premature" to conclude that the cells created in his lab could replace embryonic stem cells.

"Like embryonic stem cells, these reprogrammed cells become 'pluripotent' — that is, they're capable of turning themselves into virtually any tissue type in the human body, including neurons and heart tissue. They also exhibit many of the other biochemical properties of embryonic stem cells, although they're not genetically identical to stem cells. [Emphasis mine, wherever colored type, italics, or boldfacing appear, within quoted statements in this article. No verbiage was changed in those.]"

"That bright future depends on a series of big ifs.

"First of all, the function of the reprogrammed cells will have to be compared closely with the function of actual embryonic stem cells. "I'd be surprised if these cells do all the same tricks as stem cells derived from embryos," Advanced Cell Technology's chief scientific officer, Robert Lanza told msnbc.com.

"Also, in both experiments, the four-gene recipe was added to the skin cells using a virus as the delivery package. "The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] would never allow us to use these virus-modified cells in patients," Lanza said."

A back door to human cloning? Yamanaka also said the reprogramming technique could allow for the creation of egg cells as well as sperm cells from the same person, male or female.

This Breakthrough is NOT a Substitute for ongoing Ebryonic Stem-Cell Research

On one network newscast, today, it was noted that this breakthrough would take decades to refine and make available to humans, and that it was something our kids might see happen in their lifetimes, rather than us.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa has pushed for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and said he will continue to do so.

"Our top researchers recognize that this new development does not mean that we should discontinue studying embryonic stem cells," he said in a written statement. "Scientists may yet find that embryonic stem cells are more powerful. We need to continue to pursue all alternatives as we search for treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's and spinal cord injuries."

"He added that Tuesday's announcement 'reiterates the need for federal support for medical research and again points out the president's misplaced priorities in vetoing the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill which included a substantial increase for the National Institutes of Health.'"

Senator Harkin has been an important advocate of valuable medical progress, very consistently. Not just in the case of embryonic stem-cell research, but also with respect to human cloning, which could become a huge benefit to humanity in the not-too-distant future, once all the whinings of its generally-ignorant opponents have been summarily rejected by the developed world's societies.

On March 12, 1997, Harkin very enthusiatically endorsed all forms of medical technologies, including human cloning, when he said this after the successful cloning of Dolly, the sheep:

"This has enormous potential for good. There should be no limits on human knowledge, none whatever. To those like President Clinton who say we can't play God, I say OK, fine, you can take your side alongside Pope Paul V who in 1616 tried to stop Galileo, they accused Galileo of trying to play God too. [ ... ] I don't think cloning is demeaning to human nature. To attempt to limit human knowledge is demeaning. It's not legitimate to try to stop cloning. What nonsense, what utter, utter nonsense to think we can hold up our hand and just say 'stop.' Cloning will continue, the human mind will continue to inquire into it. Human cloning will take place and it will take place in my lifetime, and I don't fear it at all. I want to be on the side of the Galileos and those who say the human mind has no limits, rather than trying to stop something that's going to happen anyway."

Back to MSNBC's story, "A lead author of one of the landmark studies, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urged that reprogrammed cells not wholly supplant embryonic stem cells in research. 'I don't like the idea of pulling the plug,' he told reporters in a conference call.

"He added that Tuesday's advances in reprogramming cells would not have been possible without the advancements in embryonic stem cell research over the past decade.

"Thomson and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin were the first researchers to isolate human embryonic stem cells, in 1998."

Interestingly, another cause for concern was raised in both the NBC Nightly News and on NBC's Today Show -- the possibility that the stem cells derived from this breakthrough may be flawed, in that they may have the potential to become cancerous.

My Own Conclusion

Senator Tom Harkin (whom, I am proud and happy to say, is my senator, as an Iowan) said it all in the comments I highlighted above. In America, today's equivalent of the sort of mindless opposition that Galileo faced, is the loathsome and ignorant RRR Cult -- the "Religious" Radical Right.

Early in this article, where it said "ethical debate," I inserted "[pseudo-]" before "ethical" because the opposition to embryonic stem cell research has about as little to do with an actual debate as fighting a duel with cream puffs at 60 years would if the opponent had a howitzer. There is nothing ethical about the RRR, which is comprised almost entirely of people having the sort of mentality and mindsets that we saw in Southern segregationists, 50 years ago. To most sensible and intelligent people, they are a joke. But UNTIL their loathsome and hateful agendas against progress, and individual liberties/human rights are relegated to the same permanent extinction that befell those of the segregationists, they are America's own home-grown version of the Taliban. And for as long as that UN-Christian cult continues to function, and have any influence in our society, we must continue to regard it the USA's greatest internal threat, and deal with it accordingly. Which means vigorously opposing it and properly & honestly de-legitimizing it, 24/7, 365-1/4 days a year. Because ---

The RRR Cult : U.S. Society :: 5% Arsenic solution : glass of drinking water.

Its ludicrous and antisocial agendas are toxic to American society, and the rights of tens of millions of people. And we cannot accept those, any more than we could accept equally mindless and sociopathic racial discrimination and segregation.

And fortunately for medical science, embryonic stem cell research will continue to be pursued, unabated, alongside other avenues of research involving stem cells. No matter how much the doltish RRR Cult whines about it! And that is why I entitled this article, "...Good News on TWO Fronts."