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Underground > Laboratory >

1st Human Clone

  
 
Rev. Jesse
12:51 / 25.11.01
NBC's Meet the Press just announced that Advanced Cell Technology, a company I live about 20 mintues away from, has cloned the 1st human cells for stem cell research. It looks like this is a very new story, as neither my local papers (Worcester Telegram and Gazette and the Boston Globe) have this in today's paper, nor does CNN have a link to it as of 11am EST. You can find more information at: www.usnews.com US News & World Report's site which will lead with the story tomorrow.

This seems to have caught a lot of news orgs by surprise, web searches only show usnews.com as having this story.

Note that this is not a reproductivly viable cloning system as of yet; ACT is only cloning to produce stem cells at this time and their largest one is only 6 cells big.

-Jesse
 
 
netbanshee
16:42 / 25.11.01
...well this sounds pretty promising. Hopefully ACT is on the right track.

What tends to really bother me is how quickly the scientists need to work in order to get out results before anyone else can get their sayso in on the topic. You have your, conservatives, your religious leaders, etc giving their opinions on things they do not understand and actually being given some credibility. Being from a different way of thinking with them, I wouldn't mind having someone representing the scientists ethically and medically.

I say go for it, see what's there, and make your decisions when proof is provided.
 
 
tom-karika nukes it from orbit
06:38 / 27.11.01
I find it disconcerting that the first clone news came out of the blue from one of the less well known biotech firms, rather than one of the big, hornblowing sections such as the mariconi camp.
 
 
deja_vroom
13:26 / 27.11.01
And, of course, the fuckos of the Catholic Church jumped on the spotlights waving histerically and presenting their sacred opinion - which no one had asked for - , saying
"Yes, it has a soul!"
Like, who gives a fuck or who seriously is concerned about these minutiae?
Coming from the same sad bastards that took 400 years to recognize that in fact the Earth spins around the Sun, not the other way around...
 
 
Rev. Jesse
02:38 / 28.11.01
quote:Originally posted by Mr.Karika:
I find it disconcerting that the first clone news came out of the blue from one of the less well known biotech firms, rather than one of the big, hornblowing sections such as the mariconi camp.

Well, I think this is the same firm that developed the new artifical heart. I would also bet that there are different profit motive between this company and the frankenfood firms.

But why do you find it disconcerting?

-Jesse
 
 
penitentvandal
06:07 / 28.11.01
Yes - just stem cells, not a full clone - but this hasn't stopped Shrub from telling everyone within earshot that it's 'morally wrong'.

<soapbox>

George - just because your advisors are doing a half-reasonable job fighting this war thing, please don't assume that it automatically means we give a shit about anything that comes out of the information-transmission circuit between your tiny mouth and your even-tinier mind.

Or, to put it in words you'd understand, shut the fuck up and let the people who don't smile with blissful relief whenever they've finished a speech do the talking...

</soapbox>
 
 
tom-karika nukes it from orbit
06:38 / 28.11.01
quote: But why do you find it disconcerting?

OK, I know that maybe I should have heard of ACT, slight oversight.

But I was thinking that the people looking for viable embryos (Mariconi) would have flown in to Britain to make the clones, rather than a firm that was already based in Britain, and one which had a decent, scientific and purposeful motive.

[ 28-11-2001: Message edited by: Mr.Karika ]
 
 
grant
13:31 / 08.01.02
The latest stem cell research links stem cells with anti-aging therapies.

Excerpted from the Washington Post:
quote:The study suggests that the protein, known as p53 -- a central cog in the cancer-fighting machinery of many animals, including humans -- eventually shuts off the body's ability to renew its organs and tissues, producing bone and muscle deterioration and other hallmarks of aging.

The results, reported by scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, "raise the shocking possibility that aging may be a side effect of the natural safeguards that protect us from cancer," two commentators said in an editorial accompanying the study, which appears today in the journal Nature.

The research was done in mice, and its applicability to people is uncertain. But mice and humans are close evolutionary relatives, and the study is likely to set off a race to clarify the relationship between cancer biology and aging in humans.

...and.....

Donehower's data suggest that the normal level of p53 that protects against tumors eventually becomes a brake on stem cells, arresting their growth and depriving the body of its capacity for renewal. By this reasoning, having more p53 will mean fewer tumors in the early years -- but, as the mice study suggests, at the price of premature aging, because stem cells will be shut down more rapidly and renewal capacity depleted earlier.


Of course, we're still waiting to see if the US Senate will back a ban on all stem cell research (bear in mind, ACT isn't cloning embryos to make people, it's to get the embryonic stem cells):

quote:-Cloning. The House passed a ban on all human cloning. Democrats and many Republicans in the Senate favor a ban that exempts cloning for research purposes. Debate is likely to center on a Massachusetts company's recent claim that it has cloned the first human embryo.

-Stem cells. President Bush (news - web sites) in August authorized stem cell research, but only on 64 existing stem cell lines. Some lawmakers want to expand that to include surplus embryos donated by fertility clinics - much to the chagrin of abortion critics. Scientists hope to use stem cells - which can grow into any type of human tissue - to treat Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases.


The President is also down on it.

As a result, leading researchers are leaving the United States for the UK, where the research is still allowed to continue.

Check for regular news updates here and here, not to mention New Scientist's informative page on the subject.

[ 08-01-2002: Message edited by: grant ]
 
 
grant
12:01 / 04.02.02
this just in - embryo bans possibly being rendered irrelevant by parthenogenesis. (from Nature)

quote:US researchers have cloned stem cells from the unfertilized eggs of primates - our closest animal relatives. The achievement suggests it may be possible to grow cells that can give rise to any tissue in the human body without cloning and destroying human embryos.


quote:Michael West at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Massachusetts, and colleagues tricked macaque egg cells into dividing without having first been fertilized. They used a chemical cocktail similar to the one sperm use to make eggs divide.

The dodge - called parthenogenesis - is done routinely with laboratory mice but ACT is the first to pull it off in primates. The resulting cells, called parthenotes, are clones of their mother. Experiments in mice suggest that parthenote embryos die before developing normally.

Stem-cell researchers' ultimate goal is to replace any malfunctioning body tissue, such as diabetics faulty pancreas cells or the degrading nerve sheaths in multiple sclerosis patients. One of their greatest challenges is to get stem cells to commit to becoming a particular cell type - a process called differentiation.

Primate parthenotes are, if anything, easier to grow into different tissue types than ES cells, says West: "It's all there: skin with hair follicles, developing eye tissue." His team even managed to create nerve cells that could produce dopamine. Human equivalents could replace the brain cells destroyed by Parkinson's disease.


quote:Azim Surani, a developmental biologist at University of Cambridge, UK agrees: parthenote cells lack the influence of male chromosomes, which have subtle effects on cell growth and development. Although West's cells grow in the test tube, "we cannot assume that they will behave normally when implanted in an organism," he says.


Then again...
quote:Unfortunately parthenotes don't side-step all objections to creating human embryos as a source of stem cells. "The ethical issue is not solved by this," says Bill Saunders, spokesman for the Washington DC-based Family Research Council, which opposes the use of embryos in research.

Parthenotes, although unfertilized, do form embryos, so they are living, Saunders argues. "Single-celled organisms that have the capacity to divide and grow are a member of the human species," he says.


I can just see the Republicans forming a clone rights lobby....

[ 04-02-2002: Message edited by: grant ]
 
 
grant
12:35 / 12.02.02
Maybe we don't really NEED stem cells at all... just genetically reprogram adult cells.

This'd go a long way to getting around the legal obstacles to cloning research.

quote:One of the biggest of those questions is what happens when researchers try to reprogram adult cells to develop into new embryos. Two studies now provide vital clues. But an answer is still a long way off.

Japanese researchers have found that cloned mice sicken and die earlier than their normal counterparts.

A US team has gone a long way towards proving that adult cells that are fully committed to doing a particular job can become new embryos.


quote:Biologists have long tried to work out what makes some cells yield successful clones.

One possibility is that the animals that make the grade were cloned from one of the rare stem cells found in adult bodies. These have more potential to develop into different tissue types than the majority of cells, which are fully committed to a particular job.

To rule out this possibility, one needs to create clones from a cell that carries a badge of rank. Cells in the immune system called lymphocytes have genetic rearrangements that distinguish them from the body's other cells - making them ideal for this purpose.


More here, in Nature.

[ 12-02-2002: Message edited by: grant ]
 
  
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