In the midst of all the media hype which the Raelian claims of cloning a baby have attracted, a far more significant piece of scientific research has been totally overlooked.
It didn’t get many column inches, but an Israeli research laboratory has managed to produce fully functioning mouse kidneys from a single human embryonic stem cell. For those who want to check out the science involved, it was the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Yes, these results raise some ethical questions. In particular they raise ethical questions about xenotransplantation. But right now, unless politicians have a knee-jerk reaction and ban any kind of human cloning whatsoever (there go the vaccines for early childhood diseases), we not only have replicable proof of the value of harvesting adult stem cells - we finally have the first lot of proof that hypothesis (it isn’t a theory until it’s been tested) might possibly be correct.
The implications of this - published and subject to peer review - science are “out of this world”. I’m one of those people who has campaigned loudly and often for human stem cell research to be allowed. And out of the blue, comes this gift which suggests that species become irrelevant if you harvest the stem cells at an early enough time in the division process. None of us predicted that. The implications of being able to grow mammalian organs without reference to species are - quite simply - mind boggling…
That is indeed very interesting. Truly staggering implications.
But I am lead to wonder…did you mean to post this in the Pit? 'Cause it doesn’t seem to go here.
Harmonix, unless I’m missing something, the point isn’t whether or not you could use the mouse organs in a human, but that it is at all possible to clone organs for one species from the stem cells of another. If you can make mouse organs from human cells, you may be able to make human organs from cells of other species, thus neatly avoiding many of the ethical objections raised about human cloning. Maybe.
Yes, I did mean to post this in the Pit. The potential of this research is something about which people will have highly volatile opinions.
You will note that I have already posted an MPSIMS thread in respect of cloning and that I have participated in the GQ and GD ones which address the same subject.
I put this one in the Pit for a reason - the “good” news is directly related to combining the DNA of two discreetly separable species.
I - personally - think this is the best news to come out of any of the biotech projects in ages. YMMV, and probably will.
And while you’re all opposing human stem cell research, just remember that when your children get immunised they are being immunised with vaccines which were grown in cloned chicken cultures.
Hold your horse there, mate! I don’t oppose human stem cell research. I’m all for it! I just noted that there are people who do oppose it for ethical (read: religious) reasons, including the esteemed president of the US, and that this might be a way for the research to go ahead despite such objections.
And I apologize, but I didn’t note your recent postings on the subject. As noted in another couple threads (which I forgive you for not having seen), I’ve been away from the boards for most of the past month. This just seemed to me to be a kind of “hey, look at this” type of thread, and I thought you maybe didn’t mean for it to be here. Appears I was wrong.
You really expect that to cause an argument? Well, if it does, I’m on your side, all right?
I’m sorry Ferrous, I didn’t mean to put shit on you specifically. I’m hideously pissed off that the Raelians have attracted all the attention while very significant, replicable cloning experiments have (to date) proven that some of our wildest ever scientific theories seem to pan out and seem to be replicable.
It’s like “bugger, bugger, bugger” - everyone seems to have missed the fact that the Israeli’s have grown kidneys. This is not a small achievement.
I’m far too close to the issue of therapeutic cloning to be wholly rational, but I’ll still invest faith in a lab which publishes their data over one which does not any day.
What ethical problems are there with xenotransplantation? Is Peta seriously saying that little billy must die because we shouldn’t raise a pig with a new heart?
Time to create a monster pig that will devour them all…
Tars, we have now - peer reviewed, replicable - used embryonic stem cells to grow organs in another species. No rejection - at all. And it wasn’t even pigs (which are the least likely of all the mammals to provoke allergic reactions).
We always THOUGHT that embryonic stem cells would work within an individual species - we never dared even HOPE that they would cross the species barrier; and it looks like that’s EXACTLY what has happened.
Gotcha reprise. No harm done, and apology accepted. I didn’t know you had such an personal stake in this issue, and I fully understand your outrage. It’s tragically absurd that research this important is being hindered by the outdated prejudices of a few.
Let me be the first one to go all paranoid and suggest that possibly the reason that the scary, and most-likely fraudulent, cloners are getting all the press (in the US, anyway)is because it supports of the agenda of the current administration.
More realistically, hare-brained UFO cults are more sensationalist and entertaining than legitimate scientists. Ratings- (and distribution-) -minded journalists will always cater to the lowest common denominator.
Get used to it and read specialized publications if you want to have any idea what’s going on in the world of science and technology. God knows CNN isn’t an indicator.
