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Australian Stem Cell Politics
(Tuesday August 22 2006)
 | COSMOS provides an overview of recent stem cell politics in Australia, alongside some of the science: "In 2002, George Daley at the Children's Hospital in Boston and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used [therapeutic cloning] to cure a mouse with bone marrow failure by providing it with a perfectly matched bone marrow graft. A nucleus from a cell at the tip of the mouse's tail was rebooted to develop as an embryo, which provided embryonic stem cells. Those embryonic stem cells were guided to form healthy bone marrow, which was grafted back into the mouse. End result: the mouse's bone disease was cured with its own cells, sparing it the need to use anti-rejection drugs or the possibility of a fatal rejection." Much of the most promising stem cell research is flat-out banned in Australia; supporters hope to see this changed in the near future. |
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