Politics
Friday June 24, 2005
Adult Stem Cell Breakthroughs Exciting Interest from Private Investors
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
June 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While research lobbyists pressure governments for access to embryos, more work is being done obtaining stem cells from ethical sources proving that embryonic stem cells are a dead end. This has not been lost on private investors who are now pouring money into adult stem cell research.
In April, at a meeting of the Institute of Physics, Professor Josef Käs and Dr Jochen Guck from the University of Leipzig announced that they had discovered a procedure that can extract and isolate embryo-quality stem cells from adult blood for the first time. In the past, researchers were able to identify adult stem cells from blood by marking them with dye, but this reduced their value for medical uses. The Leipzig group has found a way to identify them from a physical trait – their elasticity, that is characteristic only of stem cells.
Stem cells, because they are not yet differentiated, or specialized, to be specific types of tissue, have not developed a rigid ‘cytoskeleton’ or membrane and are therefore identifiable by being more ‘stretchy’ than other cells in the blood. Käs and Guck’s machine uses a powerful beam of infrared laser light to stretch and measure cells one by one.
This is precisely the kind of breakthrough that has private investors interested in adult stem cells. An example is Osiris Therapeutics Inc., a leader in adult stem cell therapy for tissue regeneration, which has announced it expects to have adult stem cell-based therapies on the market by late 2007. One Osiris project is working to develop a method of combating tissue rejection for leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplants.
Investors, excited about the possibilities of adult stem cells – stories about which seem to break into the news almost daily – have raised more than double the expected research funds after the Food and Drug Administration approved the research.
Two other Osiris projects are seeking to replace knee tissue after sports or repetitive motion injuries to prevent the onset of arthritis; and to replace the tissue damaged by heart attack.
This enthusiasm for adult stem cell research on the part of private investors will doubtless prod the more ideologically-driven research lobby to push harder for public funding for embryo research. However, businesses, motivated as they are by the need to pursue what works, have set the tone for the future.
Further coverage on Leipzig research from Science Daily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050619115816.htm
Visit the Osiris Technologies Inc. website:
http://www.biospace.com/b2/company_profile.cfm?CompanyID=1468
HW
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- BREAKING: US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 220 to 215
- Stupak Amendment to Health Care Bill Passes 240 - 194 Saturday Evening
- Major Health Care Development - Pro-Life Stupak Amendment Vote OK'd for Today
- NY Times: Dems Banking on Later Squeezing Pro-Life Language Out of Bill in Committee
- USCCB Spokesman: "Definitely Not True" that Bishops Support Bill As it Stands
- TIME Got it Wrong - Prof. George Opposed Grandiose Kennedy Funeral
- USCCB Condemnation Tears Facade off "Phony" Abortion Compromise for Health Bill
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholic Left
- Dirty Fighting on Abortion Funding: Word-Games and Health-Care Theatrics Boggle the Mind
- Commentary on November 6 News
- Note to LifeSiteNews Subscribers with Rogers email addresses
- New York Gov. Declares Nov. 10 Extraordinary Legislative Session for Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Washington's Pro-Family Amendment Effort Defeated - R-71 Almost Certain to Pass
- Vote Pushed Back on Canadian Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Bill to Dec. 2
- Elderly U.K. Couple in Good Health Commit Suicide, Complain of Assisted Suicide Law
- Texas Late-Term Abortionist and Baptist Minister Admits: "Am I killing? Yes, I am"
- New Evidence Contradicts CCHD's Findings on Accused Pro-Abortion Partner
- Quebec Priest Denies Possibility of Sexual Reorientation Therapy on TV
- New Hampshire Same-Sex "Marriage" Law in Crosshairs after Maine's Law Crumbles
- Brooklyn Bishop Criticized for Recorded Message Praising Pro-Abortion Politician
- First Group of "Traditionalist" Anglicans in Britain Votes to Enter Catholic Church
Most Read this Week
- Planned Parenthood Director Resigns after Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure
- Nun Defiant Following Rebuke, but Stops Abortion Escorting
- Breaking: Dominican Community Apologizes for Nun Caught Acting as Abortion Escort
- Over 200 Christendom College Students Protest Abortion at Planned Parenthood Clinic
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholics Left
- Newly Identified Corporate Supporters of Planned Parenthood Named
- Scottish Gay Rights Activists Found Guilty of Pedophilia Sentenced to Life Imprisonment
- US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 218 to 215
- Major Health Care Bill Development - Stupak Hyde Amendment Vote OK'd
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.