“A new era for stem cells”
That’s the news, and it’s groundbreaking. Here are two early reports…
Fox News has this report on the “Skin Cells to Stem Cells” announcement.
Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It is a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.
The “direct reprogramming” technique avoids the swarm of ethical, political and practical obstacles that have stymied attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos.
This is yet another opportunity to reinforce the truth that embryonic stem cell research is not only unethical and immoral, it’s unsuccessful. The cures and advances have come from adult stem cells and the science of research like what’s in today’s announcement.
Wired has more:
Even in a field accustomed to breathless proclamations of breakthroughs, the research — published Tuesday in two papers appearing in the journals Cell and Science — has provoked wonder among many scientists. They say the advance is more significant to medical research than last week’s announcement that scientists had cloned the first monkey embryo.
“It’s a new era for stem cells,” said Robert Lanza, chief science officer of Advanced Cell Technologies, a cloning company in California. “It’s the holy grail. It’s like turning lead into gold.”
“An unprecedented feat of biological alchemy”, the report calls it.
If the new method proves successful, “we can disconnect the whole stem cell debate from the culture war, from battles over embryo politics and abortion rights,” said Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society.
The scientific breakthrough is extremely hopeful. We can hope for one in politics and media, too. Like turning disingenuous arguments into intellectually honest debates. Anything is possible.