NYT: Stem Cells: Promise, in Search of Results

[DeepModem Mom]

Stem Cells: Promise, in Search of Results

By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 24, 2004


BOSTON - At three laboratories here, separated by a taxi ride of no more than 10 or 15 minutes, the world of stem cell research can be captured in all its complexity, promise and diversity.

One of the labs focuses on cells taken from human embryos, another on cells from mice and fish, and a third from stem cells that have mysteriously survived in the adult body long after their original mission is over.

But while the work here and elsewhere has touched off a debate reaching into the presidential campaign, a tour through these labs shows that the progress of research is both greater and less than it seems from a distance.

One idea, the focus of about half the nation's stem cell research, involves studying stem cells that are naturally present in adults. Researchers have found such cells in a variety of tissues and organs and say they seem to be a part of the body's normal repair mechanism. There are no ethical issues in studying these cells, but the problem is in putting them to work to treat diseases. So far, no one has succeeded.

The other line of research, with stem cells from embryos, has a different obstacle. Although, in theory, the cells could be coaxed into developing into any of the body's specialized cells, so far scientists are still working on ways to direct their growth in the laboratory and they have not yet effectively cured diseases, even in animals....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/science/24stem.html

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1. I would hope Laura Bush reads this article

Dr. Diana Bianchi discovered that fetal cells remain in a woman's body for decades after pregnancy, perhaps indefinitely.

"Meanwhile the national debate over the use of human embryonic stem cells goes on.

While many Americans say in polls that they favor using these cells, many others have strong moral objections. Creating and destroying a human embryo to obtain stem cells, they say, is ethically unacceptable, and doing research on human embryonic stem cell lines that are already in existence does not right the wrong."