Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: The Good News Just Keeps On Coming: Adult Stem Cel...

MarkH: You are the misrepresenter. I never wrote t...

2007-11-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

MarkH: You are the misrepresenter. I never wrote that ESCR was "worthless." Indeed, I said repeatedly that the argument was over ethics, not science.

"how what is childish"? Lol! Words of advice to Ma...

2007-11-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

"how what is childish"?

Lol! Words of advice to Mark. Learn to read and put things in context first... second... lose the attitude problem and maybe.. just maybe you'll get a decent conversation here. Were you that desperate to elicit a response?

:) Smiley Faces! :)

Laura, it isn't really different. This is an exam...

2007-11-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

Laura, it isn't really different. This is an example of adult stem cells doing their normal job. Interesting, but not revolutionary.

Ricardo, I just pointed out that the research that Wesley misrepresented as worthless for the last few years is what gave us the information to figure out reprogramming. SCNT in particular. Without the ESC research we would never have obtained the molecular clues to determine which four genes out of thousands, to combine in combination for this effect.

I fail to see how what is childish, about this other than your inability to substantively address the perfectly valid point.

I had some problems with this article. I know, I'...

2007-11-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

I had some problems with this article. I know, I'm a nit-picker, but thass jus' how I am.

It's rheumatoid arthritis that's an autoimmune disease. Osteoarthritis is just wear-and-tear, right? I think the OA people are the ones who are 1 in 5. My daughter has a touch of RA, possibly due to lots of antibiotics when she was little. She appears to be outgrowing it, thank God. RA is a very bad disease but some people are more affected than others. For those who are less affected, it might well be preferable to continue treating their disease conservatively.

Because "clearing out the old immune system" with a toxin rather than radiotherapy isn't really a breakthrough, is it? It's still very dangerous and unpleasant, and therefore reserved for really bad cases. I'm not clear that this is really much different from the bone marrow transplants, AKA stem cell treatments, that are being done now.

"Heard it comes from aging:" Well, that would expl...

2007-11-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

"Heard it comes from aging:" Well, that would explain it in my case!

eh guess you just have more patience than i'll pro...

2007-11-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

eh guess you just have more patience than i'll probably ever have :) heard it comes from ageing... i'll find out ;)

Ricardo: Everybody is welcome here unless they eng...

2007-11-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

Ricardo: Everybody is welcome here unless they engage in vitriol, slander, or lie. I have only thrown one person off the site because he wanted people with whom he disagreed--including me--to die, and said so repeatedly.

People can handle attitude.

Some of the guys that have been making an appearan...

2007-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Some of the guys that have been making an appearance on this website... childish.. absolutely childish... Please leave your arrogant and pedantic attitudes from our sights. Thanks.

No, I am not. I am saying the scientists said it ...

2007-11-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

No, I am not. I am saying the scientists said it was the gold standard. If so, we don't need to spend billions and years trying to perfect human cloning.

You continue to be confused about the significance...

2007-11-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

You continue to be confused about the significance of results with adult stem cells.

When a hematopoietic cell makes blood cells, it's not an adult stem cell miracle. They're just doing what marrow cells have done ever since transplantation was developed in the 1960s. Blood stem cells making blood is nothing special.

The neat discovery here is the utility of immune reprogramming, and adult stem cells are only peripherally involved. They certainly aren't transdifferentiating which is the whole point of the ESC vs ASC divide, they are differentiating into their target cell groups just as one would expect. You made a similar error when covering the same kind of immune reprogramming with type one diabetes a few months ago.

Also your coverage of the iPS cell discoveries is totally paranoid and incautious. iPS cells are not a cure-all yet, especially as long as they're using retroviruses. This vector is incompatible with human research ever since it started giving kids in the SCID trials leukemia. And that was with 1 retroviral insertion, not 4. It's also of note that this discovery was the result of the understanding of SCNT, and would have been impossible without study of ESC.

Finally, it's ironic that after all that time bashing ESC you describe the iPS cell as turning lead into gold. Are we finally admitting ESC are the gold standard?