NewsTrust - Stem Cell Research - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Stem cell research can continue throughout appeal, court says

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Chicago Tribune - By David G. Savage - Sep. 29 (News) - Government-funded research on embryonic stem cells can continue, a U.S. appellate court said Tuesday, while lawyers appeal a judge's decision that found such research illegal.

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Senator pushes bill legalizing stem cell research

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Jim Abrams - Sep. 13 (News) - Sen. Arlen Specter on Monday initiated a drive to legalize federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, superseding conflicting court decisions that he said are slowing critical work to find cures for crippling diseases.

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Stem Cell Research-Funding Ban Suspended During U.S. Government's Appeal

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By William McQuillen - Sep. 09 (News) - President Barack Obama’s administration can fund embryonic stem-cell research while it appeals a decision banning government support for any activity using cells taken from human embryos, an appeals court said. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today put on hold a ruling by District Judge Royce Lamberth during its review of the ban.

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Government appeals court ruling blocking stem-cell research funding

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - Sep. 01 (News) - The Justice Department, as promised, moved Tuesday to block a court ruling preventing use of government funds for embryonic stem cell research.

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Obama to Appeal Stem Cell Ruling

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

HealthDay - Aug. 25 (News) - U.S. scientists reacted with dismay to Monday's decision by a U.S. judge to halt any expansion of stem cell research using federal funds.

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Judge stops federal funding of embryonic stem cell research

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - Aug. 24 (News Report) - A U.S. district judge granted a preliminary injunction Monday to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research that he said destroys embryos, ruling it went against the will of Congress.

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California stem cell research: Were voters duped?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Sally Lehrman - Jun. 07 (News Analysis) - In the aftermath of the stem cell initiative, William H. Fisher, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Assn. of Northern California and Northern Nevada, found himself repeatedly having to explain such matters to hopeful families. "I don't blame the Prop. 71 people, I blame the media," he says. Alzheimer's regularly led the list of potential stem cell cures in news reports, he says, but there's no reason right now to believe that embryonic stem cells will solve the disease. Storytellers at heart and fans of the dramatic, journalists gravitate toward the remarkable possibilities of medicine and the tragic plight of patients in need. We traffic in the language of life-saving miracles and then, for balance, throw in a dash of skepticism from a critic concerned about the sanctity of life or the exploitation of egg donors.

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Reality Check: The Inevitable Disappointments from Stem Cells: Scientific American

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Matt collins - May. 27 (Special Report) - Laboratories receiving federal money are once again free to work on the cell lines of their choice (with some important restrictions). So scientists at last mostly have what they have been asking for. And the public should now prepare to be disappointed. Perhaps “disappointed” is an overstatement, but a realistic recalibration of expectations is surely in order. The problem with turning a scientific issue into a political football is that the passionate rough-and-tumble of the game can leave the science itself rather scuffed. When opponents of ESC research likened it to genocide and Nazi concentration camp experiments, its proponents countered by emphasizing how irreplaceable ESCs were and how miraculous the cures arising from them could be. Whether or not those claims wandered into rhetorical excess, at least a few false hopes and misimpressions have probably been left behind.

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Study: Testicle cells as versatile as embryo stem cells | Front page | Chron.com

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Houston Chronicle - By Seth Borenstein - Oct. 08 (News Report) - Cells taken from men's testicles seem as versatile as the stem cells derived from embryos, researchers reported Wednesday in what may be yet another new approach in a burgeoning scientific field.

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McCain Equates Embryos and Fetuses in Stem Cell Statement

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Brandon Keim - Sep. 20 (News Report) - John McCain's recent statement on embryonic stem cell research was ambiguous in some ways, but clearly misleading in another: He equated human embryos with fetuses, and used language implying that farming fetuses for their tissues is a realistic possibility.

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A Scientific Advance, a Political Question Mark

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:35:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Michael Abramowitz, Rick Weiss - Nov. 21 (News Report) - The discovery that it is possible to create equivalents to embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos has the potential to reshape -- and perhaps defuse -- the acrimonious political debate that has raged ever since human embryonic stem cells were discovered in 1998. Even before the research was officially published yesterday, White House officials began making the case that the studies vindicated the president's unwavering six-year opposition to funding for embryo-cell research and his long-standing position that scientific progress is possible without offending the morality of millions of Americans.

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What Dad didn't tell you about the birds and bees.

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 06:41:00 -0700

Slate - By William Saletan - Jun. 09 (Special Report) - It's time to talk about the birds and the bees. No, I don't mean sex. You've already heard that story: Boy meets girl, sperm meets egg, a baby grows in mommy's tummy. That's the way of all flesh. Or so you were told. Well, you know how it is with the stories we tell kids. We leave a few things out. The truth about babies is that sometimes, there's no sperm. There's just an egg, but a baby hatches anyway. Many bees don't have daddies. Neither do some birds. It's called parthenogenesis--literally, virgin birth. We're finding more and more animals that can reproduce this way, and we're learning how to engineer it in others. We're even tinkering with mommy-daddy procreation in humans. If you think sex is kinky, wait till you see the alternatives.

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Stem Cells Can Be Cancer Cell Lookalikes

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:13:43 -0700

HealthDay - By Robert Preidt - Jun. 08 (News Report) - U.S. researchers have discovered that bone marrow stem cells attracted to an area of cancer growth frequently take on the outward appearance of the cancer cells around them. But they say it's not clear that these stem cells actually help cancer develop. Many scientists believe that the bone marrow stem cells do boost the growth and spread of cancer. But the University of Florida researchers say the stem cells may simply resemble the surrounding cancer cells, but not act like them.

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Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:40:10 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas Wade - Jun. 07 (News Report) - In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient's cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease.

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Stem Cell Bill Passes, Faces New Veto

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:00:29 -0700

Associated Press - By David Espo - Jun. 07 (News Report) - The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation Thursday to loosen restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but the bill's supporters lacked the votes needed to override President Bush's threatened veto. The 247-176 House vote marked the second time in recent weeks that Democratic leaders have chosen to confront Bush over an issue on which they command widespread public support, following a veto struggle over a proposed troop withdrawal timetable from Iraq.

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Stem Cell Advances Announced

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:05:54 -0700

HealthDay - By Amanda Gardner - Jun. 06 (News Report) - A pair of stem cell discoveries announced Wednesday may one day surmount both the ethical and technical hurdles confronting such research, setting the stage for medical advances, researchers say. In the first study, scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute managed to create stem cells from non-viable mouse embryos, potentially opening a new source of cells for experiments and research.

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Stem cells 'to provide blindness cure'

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:07:13 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Roger Highfield - Jun. 06 (News Report) - Pioneering stem call transplants to restore the sight of people affected by a leading cause of blindness could start within five years, according to a British team which has reported the successful implant of human eye cells into rats.

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Simple switch turns cells embryonic

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:00:01 -0700

Nature - By David Cyranoski - Jun. 06 (News Report) - Research reported this week by three different groups shows that normal skin cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic state in mice1, 2, 3. The race is now on to apply the surprisingly straightforward procedure to human cells. If researchers succeed, it will make it relatively easy to produce cells that seem indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, and that are genetically matched to individual patients. There are limits to how useful and safe these would be for therapeutic use in the near term, but they should quickly prove a boon in the lab.

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Progress in cloned stemcells could defuse ethics storm: studies

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:05:28 -0700

Agence France-Presse - Jun. 06 (News Report) - Doctors on Thursday will report lab techniques that, they hope, will ease an ethical row clouding the eagerly-sought goal of cloned embryonic stemcells. In one study, US scientists say they reprogrammed normal tissue cells in mice to mimic the properties of embryonic stem cells, an advance that could lead to breakthrough treatments for chronic and terminal diseases in humans. "Our reprogrammed cells were virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells," said Kathrin Plath, researcher at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles.

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Diabetics cured by stem-cell treatment

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:15:04 -0700

The Times - By David Rose - Apr. 10 (News Report) - Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again. In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.

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Women will be paid to donate eggs for science

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 05:50:02 -0800

The Guardian - By Denis Campbell - Feb. 18 (News Report) - Women will be paid to donate their eggs for scientific research in a landmark decision that will prompt a fierce backlash from leading figures in the medical world. -- The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) ...

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Scientist: Don't halt embryonic stem cell studies

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:42:46 -0800

Associated Press - By Laurie Kellman - Jan. 10 (Special Report) - The author of a study on amniotic stem cells urged Congress yesterday not to consider his work a substitute for the search for disease-fighting material from embryonic stem cells.

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Scientists See Potential In Amniotic Stem Cells

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:48:57 -0800

Washington Post - By Rick Weiss - Jan. 08 (News Report) - The cells, shed by the developing fetus and easily retrieved during routine prenatal testing, are easier to maintain in laboratory dishes than embryonic stem cells -- the highly versatile cells that come from destroyed human embryos and are at the center of a heated congressional debate that will resume this week.

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Money For Stem Cells

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:43:09 -0800

Hartford Courant - By William Hathaway - Nov. 22 (News Report) - Connecticut handed out $20 million to scientists working on groundbreaking research into the use of embryonic stem cells Tuesday, becoming among the first states in the nation to step into a role the federal government has refused to take on.

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Life from Arrested Development?

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:11:01 -0700

Science - By Constance Holden - Sep. 22 (News Report) - Scientists have been working feverishly in recent years on methods to create lines of human embryonic stem (ES) cells that do not involve the destruction of human embryos. Now, researchers in Europe report they can get new lines from "arrested" embryos--early embryos that have ceased to develop but that contain individual cells that can be induced to grow separately. They and others say that the technique should satisfy people who object to stem cell research on the grounds that it harms potential human life. The team, headed by biologist Miodrag Stojkovic, who has labs at the Principe Felipe Research Centre in Valencia, Spain, and at a company called Sintocell in Serbia, obtained 161 embryos that had been donated for research at the University of Newcastle in the U.K. Of these, thirteen had stopped developing at 6 to 7 days after fertilization, when they were at the 16-24 cell stage, and 119 had stopped developing a few days after fertilization. In a paper published online yesterday in Stem Cells, the researchers report that they succeeded in generating pluripotent human ES cell lines--i.e., cells that can develop into many different kinds of cells-- from one of the 13 late-arrested embryos. To ascertain that they had stopped growing permanently, the scientists waited up to 2 days after the last cell division before trying to cultivate them. They then plated the embryos on a growth medium. Five of the 13 cultures generated outgrowths. And of these, two developed cells with ES cell characteristics. One of these was cultivated into a "fully characterized" human ES cell line, proving that it could differentiate into all three germ layers both in the dish and in live mice. The earlier-arrested embryos did not produce ES cell lines.

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