Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Finally!

Well, what I have been waiting for for 23 years may finally get done. I believe there is going to be a huge increase in funding of stem cell research and our health care costs will probably be reduced a great deal in the end if the promise of the super cure is accurate. There has been limited embryonic stem cell usage but it will probably now flourish.

Glad someone thinks I am more valuable than the eggs being flushed down the tubes.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/23/st ... index.html

It was on hold for awhile because of bush. That idiot.

I belong to a group who does independent spinal cord research and they are absolutely pumped about the expected changes. They really feel they will be able to cure my type of injury, which is severe, in 5 years or better if I am included in the research study group. Singapore has a jump on us because they are determined to make this their economic baby, but we have the best research brains and should be able to catch up and pass them pretty quickly, I hope!!

When the likes of Nancy Reagan, Orrin Hatch and Arlen Specter were in favor of it, you knew that it was nothing but a payoff for the radical religious right that it was kept in the can for so long.

This is where change not only meets hope, but gives it.

I have to tell you Jon, it has been very difficult for me to have reasonable discussions with folks who hold these eggs higfher and mightier than me. Hell the damned eggs don't pay taxes or create jobs, and I do both. I just want to walk again and be even more productive than I already am!! So yeah, I do have hope again. I would love to be able to limp around, forget about normal walking!!

They don't even know why a cell turns to cancer. Now they
are going to make you believe that they can grow nerve cells
and get them where they are supposed to go and do what they
are supposed to do. Good friggn' luck. Bush had nothing to
do with the fact that the science is not yet there and probably
never will be.

I was always curious about the difference between the embryonic and umbilical cord stem cells. Is one more "powerful" than the other?

I know there is a "business" which will store off umbilical cord stem cells to be possibly used later for the child in certain health scenarios. I don't know what they can be used for and was curious about the difference.

No offense TSB, but you obviously haven't read any of the research on this. There is a great deal the conservative coalition has had to do with this issue, namely funding and availability of the cells required to do this research. They have done a great job in putting the squeeze on both. A great deal is already known because of the use of other types of stem cells, but the embryonic cells seem to be a great deal more malleable. I get a lot of my research info through The Spinal Cord Society, which does independent research and provides members with research articles published by others around the world who are conducting research. Check them out and you may be enlightened.

The TRICK to fixing spianl cord injury is getting rid of the gila scare at the injury site. In my case vert T-4. The scare prevents nerves from growing through or around it. Your spianl cord is the only thing in your body that cannot repair its self when damaged. You only need about 10% of your cord carrying singnals to function. They know how to grow nerves and have for along time. If I was a rat I would be "fixed" by now. I will never be completely fixed. The trick to getting fixed is anybody seeing you would never know you had a SCI (spianl cord injury). There will always be things that will just never be right in the body. Dr Davies in Denver , Colarado is by far the furthest along in his reaserch to get rid of the gila scare and promote never growth with sheathing to insulated the nerve electric singles. Just like they cured most polio in the USA , he will be the man to cure SCI. They have a clinical trial set up in China for SCI. Plenty of hospitals and knowledgeable doctors on doing the work. As soon as things start happening there , things can easyily be moved to the USA.

It was on hold for awhile because of bush. That idiot.

No it was not.

FDA approvals, even for test studies, do not happen in 2 days. This has been in the works for a long while, all but two days of it under the Bush administration. Indeed no where in the story linked do they say the Bush administration was holding this approval up. Nothing was on hold.

Geron funded this entirely with their own money, just like thousands of other R&D projects around the country in all sorts of industries. I'm puzzled as to why this specific form of stem cell research is so damned important to have more tax money spent on it than is already being done. Yes, Bush was the first president to approve funding for embryonic stem cell research. The research was limited to 20 stem cell source lines though, as a compromise on between the competing interests of moral/ethical questions and the desire to use what stem cell lines are already available. This rule did nothing to preclude privately funded R&D or to fundamentally limit or preclude theraputic stem cell research.

The only thing that "held this up" is lack of private funding and the fact that this was the first study proposal of this type the FDA had reviewed and so didn't have anything to compare it against. Lack of funding is a problem shared by businesses of all stripes and all sorts of R&D efforts. No big injustice there. And at some point there was going to be a first for this kind of study. No matter when it came along it was going to be a longer than usual approval process. Again, no grand injustice.

Keep in mind, pharma is one of the most well funded industries in this country and the fact they could only scrape up $40 million or so for this effort is indicative not of any Bush initiated restriction but of how lacking in payoff/potential this sort of research has been compared to other priorities and initiatives. For instance efforts with adult stem cells, umbilical stem cells, and other sources has gone on with more success and hope for results and thus with greater funding.

stockingfull wrote:This is where change not only meets hope, but gives it.

Out of the darkness & back into the light!

I always thought it was sad that eggs were wasted. I know there were some people who went through Invitrofertilization and had eggs frozen in case they needed to do the procedure again. When it was apparent they no longer needed the eggs and they didn't want to pay anymore storage fees they were told the only option was to keep paying to store the eggs or they would be destroyed as biohazardous waste. That is a waste, no pun intended just the irony.

The so called "presidianl line" of embryonic stem cells bush had aboved for study were all contaminated and were pretty much usless. bush stop any new line of embryonic stem cell reasearch with fed money. Plenty of places were doing ESC with their own money like Geron. Now the FDA had a hold on clinical tials using ESC because of bushs stupidy and not caring about his fellow man. He's gone thank God and the ban has been lifed. Geron's study was put on hold for over a year because the FDA had the ban.

Kootch88

My daughter is a PHD in cell and molecular biology doing research
at Hershey Medical Center. I'll take her word over the wacky left
that thinks the laws of science can be argued in front of the
supreme court.
But hope springs eternal and for those that need help, I
pray that someone gets it right. There is always a chance.
Prove me wrong. I would rejoice with the rest of you.

TSB

Devil505 wrote:

stockingfull wrote:This is where change not only meets hope, but gives it.

Out of the darkness & back into the light!

Apparently you and stockingfull didn't read pvolcko's post.

Bush isn't the root of all evil.

Get off it.

While stem cell research may be a good thing, the ethical considerations are huge. While repairing spinal cord injuries and the like are desireable outcomes, discovering the fountain of youth could be more of a curse than a blessing.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.