MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-01-19 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Human Cloning
|
Look in Google news
Ruben
On Sat, Jan 19, 2008 at 12:47:02PM -0500, Michael L. Richardson wrote:
> Can you post the url to this?
>
> Ruben Safir wrote:
> >Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells
> >
> >By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 18, 2008; A01
> >
> >Scientists at a California company reported yesterday that they had
> >created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells
> >taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing
> >personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases.
> >
> >Creation of the embryos -- grown from cells taken from the company's chief
> >executive and one of its investors -- also offered sobering evidence that
> >few, if any, technical barriers may remain to the creation of cloned
> >babies. That reality could prompt renewed controversy on Capitol Hill,
> >where the debate over human cloning has died down of late.
> >
> >Five of the new embryos grew in laboratory dishes to the stage that
> >fertility doctors consider ready for transfer to a woman's womb: a degree
> >of development that clones of adult humans have never achieved before.
> >
> >No one knows whether those embryos were healthy enough to grow into
> >babies. But the study leader, who is also the medical director of a
> >fertility clinic, said they looked robust, even as he emphasized that
> >he has no interest in cloning people.
> >
> >"It's unethical and it's illegal, and we hope no one else does it
> >either," said Samuel H. Wood, chief executive of Stemagen in La Jolla,
> >whose skin cells were cloned and who led the study with Andrew J. French,
> >the firm's chief scientific officer.
> >
> >The closely held company hopes to make embryos that are clones, or
> >genetic twins, of patients, then harvest stem cells from those embryos
> >and grow them into replacement tissues. When transplanted into patients,
> >the tissues would not be rejected because the immune system would see
> >them as "self."
> >
> >"All our efforts are being directed toward personalized medicine and
> >diseases," said Wood, adding that the scientists did not try to extract
> >stem cells from the first embryos they made because they were focused
> >on proving they could make the clones.
> >
> >Other stem cell scientists expressed optimism but said they want to see
> >the work repeated and more details presented.
> >
> >"I'd really like to believe it, but I'm not sold yet," said Robert Lanza
> >of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Mass. He said the report
> >did not show the results of molecular tests that scientists typically
> >do to prove that the cloning process was complete. He and George Daley,
> >a stem cell scientist at Children's Hospital Boston, said the embryos
> >look only marginally healthy in photos.
> >
> >The work is the latest evidence, however, that the field is recovering
> >from the scientific and public relations debacle of 2005, when similar
> >claims by South Korean scientists proved to have been fabricated.
> >
> >Nevertheless, opponents of research on human embryos lashed out at
> >the approach.
> >
> >"This study seems to confirm that human cloning . . . is technically
> >possible," said Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
> >Bishops. "It does not show that a viable or normal embryonic stem cell
> >line can be derived this way, or that any such cell has 'therapeutic'
> >value. It does not answer the ethical or social questions about
> >the mass-production of developing human lives in order to destroy
> >them. . . . It only tells us that these questions are more urgent
> >than ever."
> >
> >Other critics noted that scientists in Japan and Wisconsin recently
> >discovered a way to "reprogram" stem cells directly from skin cells,
> >without having to make embryos as a middle step.
> >
> >"In light of the recent cell reprogramming developments, cloning-based
> >stem cell research is less justified than ever," said Marcy Darnovsky
> >of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, Calif.
> >
> >Wood and others countered that, for now, those approaches require the
> >use of gene-altered viruses, which can trigger tumor growth.
> >
> >"It's hard to believe the FDA would approve the use of those cells,"
> >Wood said.
> >
> >Criticism also arose on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm has grown for
> >the newer stem cell methods that do not involve embryos.
> >
> >"Human cloning is now less about the science and more about the novelty,
> >which makes it all the more nefarious," said Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.),
> >who has sought to ban all kinds of human cloning.
> >
> >He said he hopes to revive the legislation this year. Previous bills
> >have failed because Congress, though willing to ban the creation of
> >cloned babies, is divided on the issue of banning human embryo cloning
> >for research.
> >
> >No law bans cloned-baby-making, but the Food and Drug Administration
> >has said that such experiments would require its approval.
> >
> >Cloning involves fusing an ordinary body cell with a female's egg cell
> >whose DNA has been removed. Chemical factors inside the egg reprogram the
> >body cell's DNA so that the newly created cell develops into an embryo
> >that is a genetic twin of the person or animal that donated the body cell.
> >
> >The technology has developed rapidly in animals, and scientists have
> >been trying to apply it to human cells. In 2001, scientists at ACT said
> >that they had made cloned human embryos but that they grew for only a
> >day or two.
> >
> >In 2005, scientists in Britain grew human embryo clones to the
> >fully mature "blastocyst" stage that the California team described
> >yesterday. But the body cells they used were taken from other human
> >embryos, not from adults.
> >
> >That approach offers no help to patients who are already born.
> >
> >In the new work, the team took skin cells -- some from Wood's arm and
> >some from an anonymous Stemagen investor -- and fused them to eggs
> >from women who were donating their eggs to help infertile women. About
> >one-quarter of the resulting clones, or five in all, developed into
> >five-day-old blastocysts.
> >
> >Wood said the key was that his lab is directly adjacent to a fertility
> >clinic with which the company has an arrangement, so his team obtained
> >the eggs within an hour or so of when they were retrieved from the
> >women's ovaries.
> >
> >And although researchers are typically given the poorest quality
> >"leftover" eggs from fertility patients, donors in this experiment --
> >and the women for whom those eggs were intended -- agreed to give away
> >several of the best eggs because, in each case, they had far more than
> >were needed.
> >
> >"They are the heroes in this," Wood said. "Think about it. You're
> >spending $25,000 [trying to get pregnant], and you're giving some of
> >those eggs away."
> >
> >Under California law, egg donors cannot be paid for their service.
> >
> >DNA tests proved definitively in one case, and less clearly in two others,
> >that the embryos were indeed clones. Results could not be obtained from
> >two of the embryos.
> >
> >R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University
> >of Wisconsin, said the approach is attractive because the egg donors
> >were not subjected to the medical risks of ovarian stimulation and egg
> >retrieval just for research.
> >
> >"The protocol entailed no marginal increased health risks to the
> >egg donors, as they were already undergoing hormonal stimulation for
> >non-research purposes," Charo said.
> >
> >Asked what it was like to look at embryos that were replicas of himself,
> >Wood said: "I have to admit, it's a very strange feeling. It is very
> >difficult to look at an embryo and realize it is what you were a few
> >decades ago. It is you, in a way."
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