A short notice on a recent announcment on adult stem cell research. After that is a long winded review of my views on stem cell research for new readers to understand where I am coming from on this subject.

An article on the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research highlights recent trends in stem cell research – basically how adult stem cell research is blazing forward and will demonstrate many more results, and much earler, than its controversial cousin embryonic stem cell research.

But scientists also are learning that embedded in our skin, flowing in our blood and stored in the deep reaches of our bones and brains are less versatile breeds of “adult” stem cells that may yet be coaxed into producing the same sort of medical advances without disturbing the ethical waters.
[note, scientists and biologists have known this for years, it is reporter’s who are ‘learning’]
…
Despite those limits, new therapies using adult stem cells are likely to turn up in the clinic long before embryonic stem cells are tried. About 3,000 researchers are gathered in San Francisco for the third annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, which ends today, and the majority of presentations on the program will deal with adult stem cells, conference organizers said.
…
Adult stem cell therapy is already being tested on patients. In fact, bone marrow transplantation — pioneered three decades ago — is adult stem cell therapy by another name.
[see what I mean]

For all you folks new to visiting our site I guess I should give some background on this very heated subject. I am against the false and inflated claims made by emrbyonic stem cell supporters because, basically, they are lying to desparate people facing very challenging lives. They are lying about the potential in making useful therapies from embryonic stem cells. I have a BS in biology and can hold my own with any researcher who can face up to a few simple truths about this field.

First off, the embryonic stem cell research has failed to prove they have even a modicum of control in directing the stem cells into needed target cells such us liver, nerve, muscle, etc. They clammer about not having enough material to perform the research, but the truth is there is plenty of material in primates and other mammals. The process of turning a stem cell into a nerve cell in primates, and many other mammals, is going to be as similar to that needed for humans. And even if not identicial, the abiltiy to prove you can transform a stem cell into a target cell, in a controlled and repeatable and safe manner in an animal is a reasonable requirement before messing with human beings. It is for required for new comsetics so why not stem cells???

In addition, you have the tissue rejection issues, the concerns about merging of two individual’s DNA within confined regions of the body with no idea if it will result in chaos (i.e., runaway cancerous growth). Adult stem cell therapies which use the patient’s own adult stem cells avoid all these pitfalls. And adult stem cells are making progress in leaps and bounds while the embryonic research keeps releasing announcements about how many embryos they can create, etc.

So I post news time to time on the break-throughs in Adult Stem Cell research, since the mainstream media never does. I guess it doesn’t fit with their world view of how things should transpire.