Re: Teaching "There Can Be No Denial Of Truth" 1-6-81

NO WONDER THE FORMER "UNITED" STATES ARE IN TROUBLE! CAN YOU BELIEVE
"PEOPLE" ACTUALLY BUY THE EXCREMENT THIS reeve PERSON IS SPEWING?


Ah well, take a break ... and try to read the following.

Comprehension? That would be a plus!


----------------------
George W. Bush, whose inimical and odious decisions have led to the
death and displacement of millions of HUMAN BEINGS, has for political
reasons opposed embyonic stem cell research, on "ethical" and
religious grounds, he insists.

What a joke, eh? Hard not to laugh.

Thankfully, this morally bereft war criminal leaves office in
January.

Unless somehow his near-clone Mc"Cane" is awarded the presidency by
the Supreme Court (don't laugh). But with the likelihood of a
Democratic Executive and Congress, things are looking up for
advancements in cell conversions, aimed at curing a host of human
diseases and life-threatening conditions.

Sorrowfully, during your Nincompoop-In-Chief's "tenure," the U.S. has
lost valuable ground in cell-tissue research. As a result, Japan,
South Korea, China, and India, among other nations, have become the
vanguards in these potentially life-saving investigations.

But in the U.S., benighted and ignorant religion-huggers will still
try to stop any research and knowledge based on science, rather than
the supernatural fairy tales that grip them in fear and stupefaction.
I'd say this means their brains are equal in size to a 1-week-old
embryo.

You agree?

------------------------------
"Scientists Reprogram Adult Cells' Function"

"Advance Stirs Up Debate on Embryos"

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2008; A01



Scientists have transformed one type of fully developed adult cell
directly into another inside a living animal, a startling advance that
could lead to cures for a variety of illnesses and sidestep the
political and ethical quagmires

associated with embryonic stem cell research.

Through a series of painstaking experiments involving mice, the
Harvard biologists pinpointed three crucial molecular switches that,
when flipped, completely convert a common cell in the pancreas into
the more precious insulin-producing ones that diabetics need to
survive.

The experiments, detailed online yesterday in the journal Nature,
raise the prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes but
also heart disease, strokes and many other ailments could eventually
have some of their cells reprogrammed to cure their afflictions
without the need for drugs, transplants or other therapies.

"It's kind of an extreme makeover of a cell," said Douglas A. Melton,
co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who led the research.
"The goal is to create cells that are missing or defective in people.
It's very exciting."

The work was hailed as a welcome development even by critics of
research involving embryonic stem cells, which can be coaxed to become
any tissue in the body but are highly controversial because they are
obtained by destroying embryos.

"I see no moral problem in this basic technique," said Richard
Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a leading
opponent of embryonic stems cell research. "This is a 'win-win'
situation for medicine and ethics."

Researchers in the field, who have become accustomed to rapid
advances, said they, too, were surprised by the advance.

"I'm stunned," said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced
Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., a developer of stem cell
therapies. "It introduces a whole new paradigm for treating disease."

Melton and other researchers cautioned that many years of research lay
ahead to prove whether the development would translate into cures.

"It's an important proof of concept," said Lawrence Goldstein, a stem
cell researcher at the University of California at San Diego. "But
these things always look easier on the blackboard than when you have
to do them in actual patients."

Although the experiment involved mice, Melton and other researchers
were optimistic that the approach would work in people.

"You never know for sure -- mice aren't humans," said George Q. Daley,
a stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston. "But the
biology of pancreatic development is very closely related in mice and
humans."

Melton has already started experimenting with human cells in the
laboratory and hopes that within a year he can start planning the
first studies involving people with diabetes. "I would say within five
years, we could be ready to start human trials," Melton said.

Other scientists have begun trying the approach on other cells,
including those that could be used to treat spinal cord injuries and
neurodegenerative disorders such as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"The idea to be able to reprogram one adult neuron type into another
for repair in the nervous system is very exciting," said Paola
Arlotta, who is working in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at
Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The research is the latest development in the explosive field of
regenerative medicine, which seeks to create replacement tissues and
body parts tailored to patients. That objective appeared within reach
after scientists discovered stem cells. But stem cell research has
been hampered by objections from President Bush and others who believe
that the earliest stages of human life have moral standing.

Scientists last year shocked the field when they announced they had
discovered how to manipulate the genes of adult cells to turn them
back into the equivalent of embryonic cells -- entities dubbed
"induced pluripotent stem" or "iPS" cells -- which could then be
coaxed into any type of cell in the body.

The new work takes further advantage of the increasing ability
scientists have developed in harnessing the once-mysterious inner
workings of cells -- this time to skip the intermediary step of iPS
cells and directly transform adult cells.

"This experiment proves you don't have to go all the way back to an
embryonic state," Daley said. "You can use a related cell. That may be
easier to do and more practical to do."

Doerflinger argued that the discovery was the latest evidence that
research involving human embryos is no longer necessary. "This adds to
the large and growing list of studies helping to make embryonic stem
cells irrelevant to medical progress," Doerflinger wrote in an e-mail.

But other researchers disputed that, saying it remains unclear which
approach will ultimately prove most useful.

"Embryonic stem cells offer a unique window in human disease and
remain a key to the long-term progress of regenerative medicine,"
Melton said.

For their work, Melton and his colleagues systematically studied cells
from the pancreas of adult mice, slowly winnowing the list of genes
necessary to make a "beta" cell that produces insulin. After narrowing
the candidate genes to nine, the researchers genetically engineered
viruses known as adenoviruses to ferry the genes into other pancreatic
cells, known as exocrine cells, which normally secrete enzymes to help
digest food. That finally enabled the researchers to identify the
three crucial genes needed take control of the rest of the cell's
genes to convert an exocrine cell into a beta cell.

"It was a mixture of work, luck and guessing," Melton said. "We
achieved a complete transformation, or re-purposing, of cells from one
type to another. We were delighted."

When the scientists tried the approach on diabetic mice, the animals
became able to control their blood sugar levels.

"It didn't cure the mouse, but they were able to reduce their blood
sugar levels to near-normal," Melton said.

Melton and others said it remains to be seen whether it will be
necessary to use genetically engineered viruses, which could face
obstacles obtaining regulatory approval because of concerns about
unforeseen risks, or whether chemicals might be found to do the same
thing.

If preliminary studies in the laboratory are promising, Melton said he
might first try converting liver cells to insulin-producing pancreatic
cells, because that would be safer than using the pancreas. An
alternative strategy would be to use the approach to grow beta cells
in the laboratory and transplant them into patients.

Lanza said he is optimistic.

"One day, this may allow the doctor to replace the scalpel with a sort
of genetic surgery," Lanza said. "If this can be perfected, it would
represent one of the holy grails of medicine."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082701829.html
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