Medical Transformation

Scientists Discover Why Teeth Form in a Single Row - MarketWatch

2009-02-27T19:19:00.001-08:00

A system of opposing genetic forces determines why mammals develop a single row of teeth, while sharks sport several, according to a study published today in the journal Science.

Scientists Discover Why Teeth Form in a Single Row - MarketWatch

Technorati Tags: cleft palatte,tooth,genetics

A New Method to Alter Genetic Code

2008-11-14T07:23:00.001-08:00

PIGS really could save our bacon. Organs that are invisible to our immune system and so won't be rejected when they are transplanted could be ready within 10 years, thanks to a faster way of genetically engineering pigs.

Progress towards these "xenotransplants" has stalled through lack of funding and problems with the cloning technique used to engineer the pigs. Now there is a simpler way. The new technique will alter the DNA in a boar's sperm cells, and therefore in any future offspring, by injecting a virus into its testicles carrying the desired genes - such as those used to "disguise" pig organs. When the boars breed naturally, they should pass on the genetic changes to

Tags: DNA, Xenotransplants, genetically engineered pigs

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Simulation Based Research by Henry Markham

2008-09-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Henry Markham proposes 'simulation based research'

Reverse Engineer natural processes.

Generate Neurons

Reverse Engineer Electrical Types.

Molecular Basis of Electrical Diversity

Forward Engineering Single Neuron Models

Probe Neuron Models

The channelome project

The human “channelome,” comprises families of
membrane ion channel proteins regulating bodily functions—some
400 genes, mixed and matched.

Placing snapses

1. Blue Builder Simulation Package

Capturing snaptic transmission

1. 6 types of snapsis
2. anatomy of Martinotti Loops

Network Activity

1. Most processing is analog

Blue Brain has no hypothesis so it had funding problems in the US.

Emergent properties

Consciousness?

IT challenge

workflows

supercomputers

build neurons

VISUALIZATION

1. INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION
2. Analysis

Blue Brain is a facility to build circuits

The future is virtual labs

Funding is trivial

over 1000 different diseases affected by the brain circuits

Robotic Surgery on the Rise

2008-09-18T07:26:00.001-07:00

Robotic surgical device manufacturing is at the burgeoning intersection of the automation industry and the medical instrumentation field. Although the current-day technology has existed since the early 2000s, the last couple of years have seen a large upswing in robotic surgery procedures.

The market for robot-assisted medical systems grew from $626.5 million in 2007 to an estimated $1 billion in 2008, according to a report published by Research and Markets. At the current rate, it is forecast to expand to $14 billion by 2014.

Much of this growth has been driven by sales of the "da Vinci" robotic system, developed by Intuitive Surgical. According to Barron's, the number of patients who underwent da Vinci surgery last year soared to 85,000, an increase of 75 percent from 2006. System sales rose by 42 percent over the same period.
The system's tiny robot arms are able to go places where human hands cannot, such as between the ribs in order to access the heart. The arms follow commands given by a surgeon in another room, who monitors the operation on a magnified screen. This process is particularly helpful for high-risk patients who would normally be considered poor candidates for intensive surgery.

Tags: da Vinci, Robotic Surgery

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The Hidden Talents of the Lowly Sea Cucumber | Popular Science

2008-06-03T06:28:00.001-07:00

A recent study shows that a gene in the sea cucumber blocks transmission of the parasite that causes malaria. Passed to humans by mosquitoes, malaria threatens around 40 percent of the world's population and is blamed for up to a million deaths a year. The idea is to incorporate the gene into mosquitoes, causing them to produce the protein lectin, which is poisonous to the malaria parasite early in development. The new, genetically modified mosquitoes would be released into the wild in hopes that they reproduce and spread the new gene to future generations and tamp out the spread of malaria.

The Hidden Talents of the Lowly Sea Cucumber | Popular Science

Technorati Tags: malaria,sea cucumber,genetics,genetic switch,lectin

Cancer Risk Linked To Gum Disease

2008-06-03T06:11:00.001-07:00

This looks like another indicator of inflammation risk.

The researchers found that after adjusting for details about the history of smoking, dietary factors, and other known risk factors, participants with a history of gum disease were 14% more likely to develop any type of cancer compared to those without history of gum disease.

Cancer Risk Linked To Gum Disease

Technorati Tags: cancer,inflammation

AFP: Sedentary life accelerates aging: study

2008-04-27T17:18:00.001-07:00

AFP: Sedentary life accelerates aging: study

Printable Robots - OhmyNews International

2008-03-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

Consider recent advances in inkjet printing. The same basic technology in a $100 home printer has been used by researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina for the printing of "bio-ink" skin tissue as potential grafts for burn victims. It may also provide the basis for the printing of complete artificial organs such as kidneys and livers.

Printable Robots - OhmyNews International

Technorati Tags: Inkjet robot,robot,printable organ

The Race to Read Genomes on a Shoestring, Relatively Speaking - New York Times

2008-02-11T17:39:00.001-08:00

A person wanting to know his or her complete genetic blueprint can already have it done — for $350,000.

But whether a personal genome readout becomes affordable to the rest of us could depend on efforts like the one taking place secretly in a nondescript Silicon Valley industrial park. There, Pacific Biosciences has been developing a DNA sequencing machine that within a few years might be able to unravel an individual’s entire genome in minutes, for less than $1,000. The company plans to make its first public presentation about the technology on Saturday.

The Race to Read Genomes on a Shoestring, Relatively Speaking - New York Times

Technorati Tags: DNA,Genomes

Pigs raise hopes for blindness cure - Telegraph

2008-01-30T13:19:00.001-08:00

"The results are really encouraging," says Prof Coffey. "We plan to do the first patient within three years."

Using surgical instruments introduced through three one millimetre holes in the eye, the team goes under the retina, a translucent layer, then inflate it so it separates from the underlying cells.

The human eye cells derived from embryonic cells were then introduced on a rolled up patch and injected through a one millimetre hole, where the patch of human cells unfolded under the retina.

"I was over the moon when I got the results because it is a proof of concept," says Prof Coffey. "We really can do it."

Although the implanted human cells are black, the same as the surrounding pig cells, they can be distinguished when light of a given colour is shone into the eye. The human cells glowed when viewed this way under the gaze of an instrument called a scanning laser opthalmoscope. "That indicates good function," says Prof Coffey.

The operation on three sighted pigs took only 30 minutes, suggesting the stem cell implants could eventually become a routine outpatient operation, they told an event backed by the company Mostra at the Globe Theatre to promote the London Project to Cure Blindness - a scientific initiative between UCL, Moorfields and The University of Sheffield.

Pigs raise hopes for blindness cure - Telegraph

Technorati Tags: macular degeneration

Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough

2008-01-24T08:23:00.001-08:00

The treatment involved weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

"There's reason to hope these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives," said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Since the world's first transplant more than 50 years ago, scientists have searched for ways to trick the body to accept a foreign organ as its own. Immune-suppressing drugs that prevent organ rejection came into wide use in the 1980s. But they raise the risk of cancer, kidney failure and many other problems. And they have unpleasant side effects such as excessive hair growth, bloating and tremors.
Eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs is "a huge advance," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, a University of Louisville immunology specialist who had no role in the work.
"It still needs some fine-tuning so that everyone who gets treated gets the same consistent outcome ... It's not the holy grail of tolerance yet," she cautioned.

Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough

Technorati Tags: Organ Transplants,immune system

Stem Cell Study to Target Crohn's disease

2007-10-31T08:17:00.001-07:00

Crohn's sufferers are genetically predisposed to the disease, which is first triggered in their body when they come into contact with a particular environmental stimulus. Once this happens, the immune system responds — leading to symptoms that blight the lives of sufferers.

Stem cells hold a potential solution to this problem. As the body's 'master' cells, which can be directed to form any type of tissue, they will be extracted from patients and then re-established in their bone marrow to 're-boot' the immune system, taking it back to a state before Crohn's symptoms were triggered.

Professor Hawkey and his team intend to recruit 48 volunteers who are suffering with the most serious symptoms, from the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and the Czech Republic and Canada. The study is called ASTIC – which stands for Autologous Stem cell Transplant International Crohn's Disease trial.

Link

Tags: Stem Cells, Crohn's Disease

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Nanotechnology Propels Advances In Regenerative Medicine Research

2007-10-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

Nanotubes help adult stem cells morph into neurons in brain-damaged rats.

Nanostructures promote formation of blood vessels, bolster cardiovascular function after heart attack

Are the two major advances discussed at a conference recently. No hint of how the nanotubes did this was supplied.

Link

Tags: nonotube, CHD, stem cells

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Cancer Death Rates Dropping Fast

2007-10-15T05:56:00.001-07:00

This rate of improvement in cancer treatement is evidence of medical transformation. While a 2pct improvement may not sound like much the cumulative effect is transforming.

Link

Tags: colon cancer

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Virtual Colonoscopy

2007-10-04T13:58:00.001-07:00

Virtual colonoscopy as effective as traditional one: study

AFP

- Oct 04, 2007

- 1 hour ago

Virtual colonoscopy requires some injection of air. The removal of any polyps found requires a separate procedure. The study found almost the same number of ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 10/2007

ACRIN Study Endorses Virtual Colonoscopy - Validation for Colon ...

CNNMoney.com

- Oct 03, 2007

- Oct 03, 2007

The results are expected to lead to wider adoption of CT colonography (also known as virtual colonoscopy) as routine screening for colorectal cancer. ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 10/2007

Virtual Colonoscopy Suggested as Initial Screening for Colorectal ...

Cancer Consultants (press release)

, USA

- Oct 04, 2007

- 5 hours ago

According to an article recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, virtual colonoscopy, also referred to as computed tomographic ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 10/2007

National and Washington news in brief

San Jose Mercury News

, USA

- Oct 04, 2007

- 12 hours ago

Virtual colonoscopy also is less invasive, has fewer complications and doesn't require sedation, said the lead author, David Kim. stripping 4 million ...

Link

Tags: Colonoscopy

This is another example of the advances made in imaging. More to follow...

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The Library of Congress - Webcasts

2007-08-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Library of Congress - Webcasts

Medical transformation depends so much on new technology and world views that this video explains, I have a link to it here.

John C. Mather presents us with a view of the cosmos and how all matter is created. The second presentation by Craig Mello deals with modern biology and RNAi. Both are key to understanding reality and disease.

Benefits of stem-cell engraftment may not last

2007-07-21T04:17:00.001-07:00

The good news is that real, beating cardiomyocytes can be grown from undifferentiated stem cells, and large quantities of these cells with distinctly human characteristics can be obtained from human embryonic stem cells, as Mummery's talk proved. These differentiated cells will permit screens for drugs that bolster the numbers of cardiomyocytes produced and that help cardiomyocytes engraft and survive. Thus, although this progress may not signal the arrival of effective therapies, it may mark the true beginning of their development.

Link

The good news is also that the real work of heart repair is beginning. The tough answers are beginning to come out. Now, we can suspect that varying results might be caused by mis-labeling cells. Now, we know that the heart is a difficult but not impossible place to use stem cells, and that stem cells can form heart cells.

Tags: Heart, Cardiomyocytes, Mummery, ISSCR.

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Scientists Create Breakthrough Sensor Capable of Detecting Individual Molecules

2007-07-09T13:15:00.001-07:00

This device could make direct observation of single biological events possible.

Applied physicists at the California Institute of Technology have figured out a way to detect single biological molecules with a microscopic optical device. The method has already proven effective for detecting the signaling proteins called cytokines that indicate the function of the immune system, and it could be used in numerous medical applications, such as the extremely early detection of cancer and other diseases, as well as in basic biological research.

Article

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Embryo Screening

2007-07-09T13:04:00.001-07:00

The Times's Amy Harmon talks about the increasingly common practice of the embryo screening procedure known as PGD. (Producer: Erik Olsen)

Video

Embryo screening will be much more complex when more than one condition is being checked. The field should be very interesting.

Tags: Embryo Screening, PGD

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Studies to find better ways to preserve human eggs, ovarian tissue under way

2007-06-21T10:27:00.001-07:00

The goal is to make human eggs, ovarian tissue, blood vessels, even whole organs available when needed.

To get there, researchers are directly comparing slow-freezing techniques, used successfully for decades to preserve sperm and embryos, to a more rapid method of cryopreservation that transforms tissues into durable

“Regenerative medicine will help supplement the shortage of organs in the future, and we need technology to preserve those we make.”

Article

Tags: Regenerative Medicine, Cryopreservation, human eggs

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AmpliChip CYP450 Test

2007-06-14T07:37:00.001-07:00

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM) today announced it is the first Midwest-based laboratory to offer the FDA-approved AmpliChip(R) CYP450 Test to physicians and hospitals.

This genomics-based, FDA-approved clinical laboratory test provides physicians information that may be used to help determine a patient's unique ability or inability to metabolize a large variety of prescription drugs. AmpliChip CYP450 test results may be used by physicians to make more rational drug prescription decisions, reduce "trial and error" prescription and dosing and guard against dangerous and expensive adverse drug reactions.

Tags: AmpliChip, CYP450

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Heart Failure Drug May Remove Wrinkles

2007-05-30T05:34:00.001-07:00

Dr. Xie, a molecular biologist, is a basic scientist. He approached heart failure by looking at the behavior of a tiny doorway found in cell surfaces - a pump, actually, that controls the levels of calcium in the cell, and thereby controls the strength of each heart beat.
Dr. Xie found that the pump is more than a pump. It has a second, completely distinct role in the cell. It is a commander. It can issue instructions to the rest of the cell, and get all kinds of processes moving.
As Dr. Xie looked at how the pump also sends signals, he realized that this meant a class of drugs given to heart failure patients for nearly 200 years - digitalis and drugs like it - probably didn't work the way everyone thought.
"When we started to look at the therapeutic effect of digitalis on cardiac cells, we realized the concentration [of digitalis] we used was too low," Dr. Xie said. There wasn't enough digitalis to affect pumping. Dr. Xie discovered that drugs like digitalis actually turn on the pump's command capabilities. Drs. Shapiro and Xie conducted a series of four experiments to look at how digitalislike substances affect the rat heart. In one experiment, they gave healthy rats low doses of a digitalislike drug. Those rats developed fibrous hearts, which worked inefficiently. They were in heart failure. In another experiment, they gave heathy rats an antibody to block digitalislike drugs, then they injected a digitalislike drug into the rat. The antibody proved protective. Those rat hearts had far less fiber. In a third experiment, they induced kidney disease in rats. These rats developed hearts riven with fibrous tissue, incapable of relaxing completely, and therefore inefficient at refilling. Finally, they gave the rats with experimentally induced kidney disease an antibody to block digitalislike substances. Those rats had far less fibrous tissue. "That study was an eye-opener," Dr. Shapiro said. "It was a smoking gun implicating [digitalislike drugs] in fibrosis."

Tags: Heart Failure, digitalis, kidney failure, Kr. Xie, Molecular Biology

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Doc on a Pole makes House Calls

2007-05-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

Or at least makes top flight care available to small rural hospitals. The May/June Michigan Country Lines, an REA publication, had a great article on the use of telemedicine in the state. On of the more popular features was Doc on a Pole, a robot terminal with the means to communicate with a distant doctor who did the actual brainwork of the case.

Tags: Doc-on-a-Pole, Telemedicine, Medical Transformation

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Viral Diseas Destroys Heart of Mexican Boy-citizens of Texas React.

2007-04-20T06:25:00.001-07:00

Residents of the Texas city raised about $500,000 for the boy, who suffers a viral infection that is eating away at his heart tissue. "In many children, it just gives you a common cold, but in certain settings, it will cause an inflammation of the heart ," said Dr. Elizabeth Frazier, head of the cardiac transplantation program at Arkansas Children's Hospital. "It permanently damages the heart muscle; it actually kills the heart muscle."

This international effort to provide care for one boy shows an aspect of the transformation of medicine over the last several decades. It also speaks about the role of human charity in medical care.

Tags: Viral heart disease, heart transplant

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Foreign Trade and American Health

2007-04-14T12:53:00.001-07:00

With China increasingly intertwined in global trade, Chinese exporters are paying a price for unsafe practices. Excessive antibiotic or pesticide residues have caused bans in Europe and Japan on Chinese shrimp, honey and other products. Hong Kong blocked imports of turbot last year after inspectors found traces of malachite green, a possibly cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections, in some fish.

Shipments from China were rejected at the rate of about 200 per month this year, the largest from any country, compared to about 18 for Thailand, and 35 for Italy, also big exporters to the U.S., according to data posted on the FDA's Web site.
Chinese products are bounced for containing pesticides, antibiotics and other potentially harmful chemicals, and false or incomplete labeling that sometimes omits the producer's name

This adds to the creationist required when considering what might be making individuals sicker.

Tags: public health, China, poison, pet food

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TED Blog

2007-03-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

TED Blog: "Google has acquired Hans Rosling's Trendalyzer software, which the Swedish demographer and his team at Gapminder have developed since 2005 to generate more useful visualizations of facts and figures.Google has acquired Hans Rosling's Trendalyzer software, which the Swedish demographer and his team at Gapminder have developed since 2005 to generate more useful visualizations of facts and figures."

Statistics and public health will be much easier to document with tools like the one referenced here. Trendalyzer is a tool to watch.

Tragic Mistakes of heTwinning Process

2007-03-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

A two-headed toddler died just before her second birthday. The Egyptian girl was born with a parasitic twin head attached to her own, the result of incomplete twinning. The parasitic head "was capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life." The girl survived the head's surgical removal a year ago, plus five additional operations to resolve complications. A brain infection finally killed her. Tragic view: Why couldn't doctors save her? Grateful view: Are you kidding? Head-separation surgery had never been done in the Middle East before, and she's the first kid to survive such surgery anywhere, not to mention five more surgeries and a full additional year. Hats off to her doctors. (For Human Nature's previous takes on twinning and "aberrant products of fertilization," click here and here.)

My question is about whether removing the second head would be murder in this country. What could a doctor legally do in the United States?

Flavanols in cocoa may enhance brain blood flow, improve cognitive health

2007-02-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Flavanols in cocoa may enhance brain blood flow, improve cognitive health: "A new study by boffins at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School has found that cocoa flavanols may enhance brain blood flow and improve cognitive health"

At last, an excuse to eat chocolate. The article reports the finding without description of what is going on.

BREITBART.COM - Science Finding Ways to Regrow Fingers

2007-02-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

BREITBART.COM - Science Finding Ways to Regrow Fingers:" ACell Inc., that makes an extract of pig bladder for promoting healing and tissue regeneration.
It helps horses regrow ligaments, for example, and the federal government has given clearance to market it for use in people. Similar formulations have been used in many people to do things like treat ulcers and other wounds and help make cartilage.
The summer before Lee Spievack's accident, Dr. Alan Spievack had used it on a neighbor who'd cut his fingertip off on a tablesaw. The man's fingertip grew back over four to six weeks, Alan Spievack said.
Lee Spievack took his brother's advice to forget about a skin graft and try the pig powder.
Soon a shipment of the stuff arrived and Lee Spievack started applying it every two days. Within four weeks his finger had regained its original length, he says, and in four months 'it looked like my normal finger.'

This is how science used to be done. 'bubble,bubble toil and trouble' It is interesting and needs to be explained using conventional science.

BBC NEWS | Health | Mice cloned from skin stem cells

2007-02-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS Health Mice cloned from skin stem cells: "Mice cloned from skin stem cells

Many cloned mice survived into adulthood
US researchers have cloned healthy mice from skin cells for the first time.
Despite notorious difficulties in producing animals through cloning, nine of 19 mice who were born survived into adulthood.
The scientists replaced the nucleus from an unfertilised egg with the nucleus from an adult skin stem cell. Mice cloned from skin stem cells

Many cloned mice survived into adulthood
US researchers have cloned healthy mice from skin cells for the first time.
Despite notorious difficulties in producing animals through cloning, nine of 19 mice who were born survived into adulthood.
The scientists replaced the nucleus from an unfertilised egg with the nucleus from an adult skin stem cell. "

This method can provide embryos from a male subject. Embryonic stem cells can be derived from that embryo.

Seeing Molecules

2007-02-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume4/issue25/story3.php

Yang is developing a better way to study biomolecules in motion. "What we hope is to visualize chemistry one molecule at a time."
For this feat, Yang uses a technique called single-molecule microscopy. The method employs probes that fluoresce red or blue when excited by a photon of light. The blue one can acquire photons from an external light source, while the red one only accepts photons from its blue counterpart. For his experiments, Yang affixes one blue and one red probe to opposite ends of a study enzyme. When the enzyme is relaxed, and both probes are far apart, the assembly glows blue. When the
enzyme closes, the blue probe can pass along its photon, and the assembly glows red.

Ultimately, Yang's work could result in advances in disease research, drug design, turbulence, materials analysis, and even our grasp of basic biochemical reactions. Says Yang, "I hope that in doing these experiments, we will get the chance to know how nature makes these things happen, and take that understanding to improve our quality of life."

Medical transformation is founded on advances like this are fundamental processes can first be observed and confirmed.

First Lady - Truth on Heart Disease by Carey Roberts

2007-01-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

First Lady - Truth on Heart Disease by Carey Roberts: "Why the sex difference? Because men more often have high blood pressure and smoke cigarettes. And experts believe men are subtly discouraged from seeking help when heart disease lurks in its early stages. "

Because men have high blood pressure? Because men smoke cigarettes? Somebody is smoking something. I think it is the writer of this article. Men have been kicking the smoking habit recently. Unfortunatly, women have been taking a smoke more frequently.

The whole course of heart disease is different in men. Men tend to get clogged arteries in specific locations. Women get them throughout the arteries-completely. Hormones protect women below a certain age. Men do not have that protection. Additionally, men tend to do the heavy lifting. That is always a good time to test your ability to have a heart attack. Extra strain on the fibrous cap causes it to break and you have a heart attack. Carey Roberts needs to explain the errors of her ways.

Nerve Regeneration with a Twist

2006-11-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

Wang, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, discovered that he could integrate dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter, into a polymer to stimulate nerve tissues to send out new connections. The discovery is the first step toward the eventual goal of implanting the new polymer into patients suffering from neurological disorders to help repair damaged nerves. The findings were published online the week of Oct. 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Self Focusing Glasses in Three Yearshttp://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060403/eyeglasses_tec.html

2006-10-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060403/eyeglasses_tec.html

April 7, 2006— New eyeglasses that shift focus from distant to near objects could soon replace bifocals and correct other vision problems.
The so-called switchable electro-optic diffractive lenses were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson andf the Georgia Institute of Technology.

This is another example of things I have thought about that are invented almost as quick as you think of them. Could these self focusing glasses take on other roles. Binoculars for example or magnifying glasses. These would be neat if they work.

Australian Experts seek Samantic Nuclear Cell Transfer Rights

2006-10-18T04:40:00.001-07:00

Forum chairman and Victoria's Chief Scientist Sir Gustav Nossal wrote: "We affirm that embryonic and adult stem cell research should be pursued as complementary avenues of investigation that hold promise for a better understanding of developmental processes, disease, assisted reproductive technology and stem cell-based human therapeutics. "There have been great advances in embryonic stem cell research in recent years, and sufficient evidence exists in animal models to justify the adoption of recommendations from the Lockhart review to enable the pursuit of this work in human systems."

Respect life activists debate stem cell research ethicshttp://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/15/s1c_RespectLife_1015

2006-10-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/15/s1c_RespectLife_1015.html

This is another appeal to dishonest logic dealing with embryonic stem cells. This approach holds that somehow everyone has missed the fact that adult stem cells are an exact replacement for embryonic stem cells and that any money that is spent on ESC is taken away from adult stem cell work. Of course, stem cell research is not a zero sum game. Adult stem cell research is needed as is ESC. All claims to the contrary are at best ill informed and at worst dishonest.

Human Embryonic Stem Cells without Mouse Feeder Cells

2006-10-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

A scientist in India is one of the first scientists to have created embryonic stem cell lines without using mouse feeder cells to grow them. Indira Hinduja, who created the country's first test-tube baby, used human feeder cells to grow the embryonic stem cell lines so they would not be contaminated.
http://www.lifenews.com/bio1795.html

Biodefence special: Fortress America? - opinion - 06 October 2006 - New Scientist

2006-10-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

Biodefence special: Fortress America? - opinion - 06 October 2006 - New Scientist

This article describes some of the ways 44 billion dollars have been spent with not much progress on bio-terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. The article explans that the military transformation plan deals with fundamental research, which it holds to be a more effective approach.

Gencasts. Genetic Engineering News - Biotechnology from Bench to Business

2006-10-02T12:33:00.001-07:00

Gencasts. Genetic Engineering News - Biotechnology from Bench to Business

Gencast provides a podcast about the efforts of IBM to use information technology to transform medicine in all aspects from business systems to diagnosis. This page has a weekly podcast program on biotech.

Regenerative Medicine

2006-03-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/14048547.htm

Growing a finger to replace one lost due to war injury. This sounds like science fiction but that is the goal during the next five years for a group called 'Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative'.

"Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest center, said it's already possible to create some simple body tissues. He said the key will be learning how to combine those smaller tissues to form something larger, such as a finger or an ear."

These procedures will surely shock the public since so little is know about them generally and the possibility is not thought to be possible.