According to researchers from the USA and Japan, the method can be applied in any laboratory and tissues from a patient's body can be grown to replace damaged tissues and be genetically compatible. President Bush is pleased
Last week announced Ian Wilmot, the researcher who was behind the cloning of Dolly the sheep, because he stops trying to clone human embryos for the purpose of producing stem cells, and instead proposes to use a new method for producing stem cells from skin cells, the result of the development of the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka.
Yesterday, a study was published in which Yamanaka collaborated with researchers from the USA and which reveals the method, not only in mice (as Yamanaka demonstrated a few months ago and captured Wilmot's heart) but also in humans.
The scientists succeeded in creating cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells from normal skin cells, a breakthrough that may one day allow the creation of new treatments for diseases without the moral limitations of cloning embryos.
The researchers, from the US and Japan, showed that a simple laboratory technique can compete with cloning, which is controversial due to the opposition of conservative circles, especially in the US, where President Bush banned funding for embryonic stem cell research.
The studies were published on Tuesday in two online journals - Cell and Science, one by teams led by Dr. Yamanaka from Kyoto University, and Junying Yu, and the other by stem cell pioneer James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Both groups reported that they had succeeded in reprogramming stem cell-like cells in a series of laboratory experiments.
Their papers end a scientific race that burst into the public consciousness last summer, when the progress in mice was reported. The new technique for reprogramming cells gives them the chameleon-like qualities of embryonic stem cells, allowing them to become any type of tissue such as heart, nerve or brain. As with embryonic stem cells, the hope is to speed up medical research. For example, one day a patient suffering from pain will be able to enjoy healthy tissue that is genetically suitable for him to replace the damaged cells.
In the Japanese study, the researchers used a mixture of chemicals containing four gene-controlling proteins to transform adult human skin cells, which are easy to grow in culture, into cells in a programmable state. The resulting cells were similar, but not identical, to embryonic stem cells, and the researchers used them to make brain and heart cells.
After 12 days in the laboratory, the clumps of cells grew into heart cell tissue and even began to beat. In the American study, they achieved the same effect by using a slightly different combination of chemicals.
The method will not only eliminate the need to create embryonic stem cells in the laboratory but is much simpler and allows for precise control than current cloning technologies.
"I was surprised when we achieved our results in mice," Yamanaka said, "but proving what can be done with human cells really made me happy." Whereas Thomson said he was surprised it didn't take long to discover how normal cells could be reprogrammed. The technique, he said, is so simple that thousands of laboratories in the US could use it, even starting tomorrow.
"This is progress achieved on all fronts. The work represents a milestone in science - the biological equivalent of the Wright brothers' first airplane," says Dr. Robert Lanza, whose company, Advanced Cell Technology, is trying to extract stem cells from cloned human embryos. "The new work has shown that, as in cloning, in 'reprogramming', normal body cells can be used to create genetically appropriate embryonic cells. "It's like learning how to turn lead into gold," says Lanza, but he warns that the research is still far from providing medical results.
"The method redefines the field of ethics" says Lori Zolot, a bioethicist at Northwestern University. "It's a WIN-WIN situation for all involved," says Reverend Thomas Berg of the Vestcher Institute, a Catholic think tank. Even President Bush, who twice vetoed the funding of stem cell research, said he was "very pleased". "The president believes that medical problems can be solved without compromising scientific quality or the sanctity of human life," he said in a statement issued by his press secretary.
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Mr. Peretz-
You are living in a movie... bad even.
It is obvious that you do not have any professional knowledge, but you are in a hurry to call scientists, programmers, doctors and what not.
A brain that will help the president of the USA? He doesn't have one? What about a brain that will help you not talk nonsense?
Thanks Cezana
I would settle for "interesting ideas" no need to exaggerate!!
It's a shame that I don't have the opportunity to visit some laboratory and see the activity on the spot... it would add reality to the imagination in which I see things!
Excellent ideas, Mr. Peretz, but there is still a long way to go.
And one more thing to add
Why not develop a brain that will help, let's say, the President of the United States to make "right" decisions!! It is a brain that will not know what it is to cheat because it has a body that will divert it in unwanted directions!
And if they are already building an elaborate brain..why not create a sophisticated brain with the addition of electronic aids, sensors and more that will help researchers in the laboratories to develop organs in such a fast, efficient and comprehensive way that an ordinary human being busy even in his day-to-day life will not be able to reach it!!
Of course, you have to find a way to read the mind and convey information to it that you want it to process and make suggestions...a small tip? It is desirable that he doesn't have a mouth (lol) so that he doesn't start talking unless he has to appear on TV!..I'm sure there will be a channel that will let him host a personal show!
Ah.. I forgot there is still a difficult problem of creating veins inside the tissues to supply blood !! And I have a problem that I have to wait 40 minutes until the computer "agrees" to turn on the screen without turning it off immediately!
I remembered now what I wanted, I thought about separate hands!!
Because during this period I tried to solve the matter of the robot serving in the houses in a different way and I came to a way where the robot would consist of arms attached to the ceiling that hand each other the necessary object and thus circumvent the problem of walking!
Therefore, instead of mechanical arms, why not biological arms? They will do the same job much more efficiently if we can live with the fact that they are biologically human-like arms or probably a combination of ape and man is more appropriate!
And if we add eyes and ears to them to hear our desires...then we will come out great!!
I will not go into detail here about other certain organs in the human body, I will leave it to your imagination!!
to Cezanne
The complexity of the issue was assumed from the beginning...I didn't think for a moment that we are dealing with a simple matter and an easy solution!
I'm happy because they thought in the right direction before me and the example you brought from your acquaintance is only one of probably hundreds or thousands of laboratories around the world. From this I understand that each laboratory chooses the composition of its team, etc. and there is no method according to which everyone follows (actually, if you were then you wouldn't need many laboratories) ..that's what I understood!
I aimed for there to be a work plan consisting of joint plans of the researchers from different fields... Let's go back to the ear, let's say a plan drawn on Bristol measuring 120 x 100 cm that hangs on the wall and is also found on everyone's computer, updated according to developments (everyone can keep up to date) as it happens In projects from other fields! And I have a feeling (and correct me if I'm wrong) that in the laboratory things are done differently also because of the competitiveness of who will register what!!
Personally already about a decade ago when I first learned about the existence of the stem cells .. I played with the possibilities and came up in slightly different directions from those that some laboratory would think to go (just my assumption) .. such as hands (or a hand) close to a wall or a horizontal surface (a table for example) with Muscular system and nourishment of blood or stomach shared by several organs, each located in a different place! For example, the hands could be used by their owners in different subjects instead of a robot..such as moving things or "making coffee" or waving a sign according to an instruction or cleaning the part closest to them depending on the distance to which their size (the size does not have to be limited!) which can reach, let's say, up to 3 meters!
As above ears close to the wall ..two thirteen twenty of different sizes and noses of different animals!! This is how I see the laboratory in my imagination (the crazy? or the fantasist?) as above eyes that will search the whole house from every corner!
It's interesting by the way that I didn't think about legs at the time because in this case they are unnecessary and when you think about it the difference between us and a tree is mainly the legs because the eyes don't move from their place like the liver the heart the lungs etc.
This is where I come from! of lack of limitations that imposes the existing!
But if we consider for a moment things from the angle of the researchers, separating the hand from the body or other organs and their function outside the body can teach things that cannot be learned when they are part of the body!
I prefer my angle, the problem with it is that the researchers are still far from the possibility of the somewhat problematic (or somewhat horrific) application... but to be honest, I mainly want to scare Bush again from this direction, which seems safe to him like I did, if the options I presented to those who can read the memory and influence It's like planting a "suitable" memory on him!
The other possibility is that some people will want to transplant organs from other animals for example monkey hands or monkey arms with human hands!! Or just lengthen or shorten the arm and leg .. change ears hair and more and more!!
This is what can happen outside the laboratory and it is interesting in my opinion.. It will increase the democratic choice of the individual also regarding the shape of his body!
We will actually shape our body!! And this reminds me that Shulamit Levenberg's team did not include plastic surgeons or surgeons from different fields! ..actually you can always get advice!
I would go into more detail, but you have to consider the time of the readers and I also couldn't find the pages I scribbled then!
Shabbat Shalom
I would not run straight to the production of complex organs because it is indeed an extremely complicated matter, but there are many diseases in which the transplantation of simple cells might help, especially when it is possible to transplant cells originating from the patient himself and thereby overcome the rejection problems. For example, a bone marrow transplant. Today You have to find a genetically similar enough donor and extract the cells from him in a particularly unpleasant process. If it is possible to take (from the patient himself or a donor) some skin cells and convince them to become bone marrow cells, we have solved a large part of the problem.
Mr. Peretz, you are absolutely right. To develop tissues indeed requires interdisciplinary cooperation.
Two good people - Professor Bob Langer and Doctor Yosef Ve Canty - reached the same conclusion 15 years ago, coining the term 'tissue engineering'.
Today there are already laboratories for tissue engineering, and in each such laboratory people with different backgrounds are researching, who can contribute to each other with their insights.
A quick example:
In Shulamit Levenberg's laboratory for tissue and stem cell engineering at the Technion, researchers with a background in
1. Biology.
2. Biotechnology.
3. Biomedical engineering.
4. Mechanical engineering.
5. Chemical engineering.
6. Nanotechnology.
7. Materials engineering.
So that there is already extensive cooperation between researchers from fields very far from each other.
However, no matter what, it is not easy to reproduce the work of nature, and it seems that there is still a long way to go before creating a complex organ like a heart or a liver in a laboratory.
As for the mouse's ear - it is not a real ear. Dr. Vakanti made a mold of a plastic ear, seeded it with human cartilage cells and implanted it under the skin of a mouse. The mouse 'consumed' the cells in the food, and the cells multiplied inside the ear until they filled it and cartilage tissue was formed in the shape of an ear.
The problem is that cartilage cells are known for being very easy to work with. Their metabolism is very low, and they can withstand stressful conditions that would kill almost any other cell. When you try the same trick on other cells, you find that it is very difficult to keep the cells alive within the resulting tissue. Only the cells that surround the tissue receive enough food and oxygen. The cells inside the tissue do not receive enough food and oxygen (because the cells outside block their passage in), and suffocate in the waste they excrete.
So it is very difficult to produce tissue that is composed of cells that are not cartilage cells. The struggle today is mainly about finding a way to create blood vessels into the resulting tissue, to feed the cells that sit inside it.
I hope I clarified a little how complex the issue is.
To Roy Tsezana...maybe in order to move forward there is a need for interdisciplinary cooperation! Why would a biologist try alone to make genes produce, say, a replacement ear or another small organ?
What qualifies him for this? It's like a construction worker will build on his own without the plans of an architect, engineer, electrical plans, etc.!
There is a need for more people like say an organ designer who will sit down and plan what they want to achieve from the genes together with a chemist's plan of the way he sees the development from his direction and more planners who will express as many aspects as possible of the systems of the biological organ and the way to increase its chances of being absorbed in the transplanted body!
This reminds me of the unfortunate (and annoying) fact that the software is developed by programmers with a one-dimensional world view and therefore we are still faltering in everything related to computer capabilities and what is progressing is mainly the hardware that depends on hard metrics such as speeds etc. and the software is constantly running after it or measuring it!
If they let me, I would be happy to come up with ideas in the abstract field at the level of an idea independent of the existing ability, and I am sure that others will also be ready (like Ami Bachar, who excels from time to time in "flatness" and "roundness") to contribute ideas...but someone needs to put all of these into a work plan !
Because "my opinion" today has everything needed to start producing organs for transplantation... I don't understand what happened to the ear that was formed on the back of a mouse? If a mouse's body can produce a human ear, which is very complicated in my eyes, then a proper infrastructure of nutrients can certainly produce the same ear and other organs!!
I am writing all of this as someone who has no knowledge of what is happening inside (within the laboratories and research institutes) but only as someone who is impressed and sees that there is an increase followed by a decrease to the beginning and again an increase and again a decrease... and they still have their nose in the jar and do not give the impression of an overall spatial vision regarding the applications And where and how much and why!
joins in the enthusiasm. A new and efficient way to create stem cells could really speed medical science forward.
The unfortunate fact is that currently, the field of medicine with the help of stem cells has not yet produced significant results. As my friend who works in the field said,
"The little bastards are hard to control."
Agree with the cool commenter.
At least from a medical point of view, the contribution of this breakthrough will, in my opinion, be more important than deciphering the human genome, for example.
Wow!!! Now we see that we are in the 21st century!!
Atomic bombs? an antique
Supercomputers? Pasa (Yaani out)
Space, satellites, spaceships? There is a nice beginning.. even from the 20th century
But renovating the body with the help of stem cells that are created from normal skin cells?
that's new! It rules! And at this moment the 21st century began
1/1/2001