The Pluripotent

Hwang Woo-suk’s Sooam Biotech Research Center has claimed they have for the first time created cloned pig embryos and used them to make embryonic stem-cell lines.  If you’ve been living in a cave (or a lab) during 2004, Hwang is the man who claimed to have succeeded in cloning human embryos by nuclear transfer.  After much excitement for his alleged results, it all turned about to be quacky, sending Hwang’s reputation down to hell.

Hyun Sang-hwan, Hwang’s key colleague at Sooam, told The Korea Times that the study will be reported in Zygote, a peer-review journal published by Cambridge University, in two or three months. Hyun also said the study on cloned pig stem cells will mark the starting point of Hwang’s comeback.

Let’s just see how reproducible the data will be.

[Via The Korea Times]

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The last time I compared embryonic stem cell research with the holocaust was in my college philosophy paper, which I incidentally failed.  (My essay was only for argument’s sake.)  I hear a lot of right-wingers pulling out the holocaust card on TV and the blogosphere.  And as all unsound philosophical arguments do, it makes me cringe each time someone puts embryonic stem cell research on par with the holocaust.  Now, a group is putting up that argument at the legislative level…

The NAAPC (note: not the NAACP), is accusing President Obama of violating the constitutional rights of a frozen embryo and “enslaving” it, like Nazis enslaved Jews during the Holocaust.  The group is urging a federal judge to halt Obama’s plans to allow federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.  The best part is this:  The group says it’s taking legal action on behalf of “Mary Scott Doe.”  That’s the name they’ve given an embryo.  “She” is a “U.S. citizen” whose life has been “suspended” since “she” was frozen in liquid nitrogen — and thousands of other embryos just like “her.” I smell a dismissal.

Want to read their official complaint?  It’s here.

[Via Fox]

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Sharon Gerecht, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering, is trying to coax human stem cells to turn into networks of new blood vessels that could someday be used to replace damaged tissue in people with heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.  Some of the questions she wants investigate are: Which environmental cues cause them to form blood vessels instead of other types of body tissue? Is it a lack of oxygen? Is it the nutrients on which the cells feed? Is it the texture and composition of the material on which the cells are situated? And which type of stem cells is best-suited to the assembly of replacement blood vessels?

It will be great if she can succeed and add blood vessels to the growing list of lab-grown organs, like Anthony Atala’s (Wake Forest University) lab-grown and implantable bladder.

[Via JHU Gazette]

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Ah… It feels so refreshing whenever someone strikes a blow to right-wing morals. Bonnie Erbe, contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report, criticizes this Reuters article about Obama’s potential lift of the stem cell research ban in the US.  Specifically, she quotes this part of the article: “In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed. It was a gesture to his conservative Christian supporters who regard embryonic stem cell research as destroying potential life, because the cells must be extracted from human embryos. Embryonic stem cells are the most basic human cells, which can develop into any type of cell in the body. Scientists believe the research could eventually produce cures for a variety of diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart disease and spinal cord injuries.”

Here’s her punch (which I’m loving): “Note the verbiage in the Reuters article above, which says that the Christian right opposed stem cell research because its members see use of embryonic stem cells as destruction or murder of “potential life.” These people need to get a life. They care more about potential life than actual living, breathing, grown up human beings. They are costing lives while pretending to campaign as pro-lifers.”

Basically, her point is that pro-lifers can be reasonably blamed for playing a part in delaying cures for diseases that may be treated by stem cells since they denied researchers in the US the opportunity to use embryonic stem cells.  That’s an indubitable statement.  But will pro-lifers ever admit they were wrong on this issue?  I doubt that.

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It seems like ever since the FDA approved Geron’s clinical trial that will use human embryonic stem cells, the right-wing has been up in arms about the issue, meaning that arguments against the use of human ES cells for research and therapeutics are resurfacing.  Bob writes in the Dakota Voice, which is um… an pro-life blog, where he sets up premises for his argument against human ES research.

Here’s what he writes: “The fact that Obama has not yet done so is a matter of consternation for those eager to destroy innocent human life in the hopes that stem cells derived from them might, maybe, someday cure various diseases in other humans… Embryonic stem cell (ESC) research involves the harvesting of stem cells from human embryos.  In the process, the human embryo is destroyed…” and so on.

He goes on to use the Nazi’s treatments of Jews as an analogy to what scientist are allegedly doing to human embryos, which of course I don’t think is a sound analogy.

The one thing that I agree with those who oppose human ES research on moral grounds is the creation of human embryos just for the sake of research.  I think it’s wrong to put together a sperm and egg with the intention to destroy it shortly after the egg’s been fertilized, especially if that fertilized egg can develop into a person.  But, if the original fate of the fertilized egg is destruction anyway, is it wrong to make charitable use out of it?

Any scientist and policy-maker in their right mind won’t allow the creation of embryos for their destruction.  That’s why there are strict guideline when human ES research is allowed–you can only use embryos that are gonna be thrown away from IVF clinics.  If people like Bob want to hold on to their arguments, they should be pointing their fingers at IVF clinics or the couples that are unsuccessful at fertilization.

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I don’t know what in the world people are thinking when they falsify data for publication.  Do they really expect to get away with it?  The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) reports that a Japanese researcher, Kazuhiro Tanaka, falsified figures in three published papers while working as a visiting postdoc at the NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).  The great part is that the papers were published nearly a decade ago, from 2000 to 2002.  The Scientist reports that he fidgeted with Western blots, Northern blots, and gel shift assay images by duplicating bands in the results of three papers.

How’d he get caught?  Years later, someone in the lab noticed that the figures from Tanaka seemed weird (photoshopped?).  Yamada, the principal investigator, asked Tanaka about the figures to which he replied a “friend” produced them.  Turned out this “friend” probably wasn’t real.  The findings were sent to ORI and the NIH started a formal investigation.

If you fabricate data, not only does it potentially suck for your own career as a scientist, but it brings down the entire lab and scientific community.

Take the jump for details on what results are fake.

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Scroll to the bottom of the homepage if you’re too lazy to read, or just watch this youtube video.  If you know our fine Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D), you know that she’s a Catholic who’s pro-choice when it comes to abortion (gasp! I know).  Yes, she’s a walking oxymoron.  Or is she?  Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI isn’t fond of her values because he told her that “all Catholics” should uphold the Church’s teachings on life, just like how “all Catholics” shouldn’t get divorced and eat meat on Fridays.

Just watch the video…

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Brazilian scientists have rejected claims that the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele – notorious for his experiments at Auschwitz – was responsible for creating a tribe of twins in a small town near the border with Argentina.

In his book, Mengele: The Angel Of Death In South America, Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa claims that Mengele made regular trips to Linha São Pedro, a small and predominantly German settlement near the city of Cândido Godói in Brazil, during the 1960s. Shortly afterwards, the birth rate of twins began to spiral, he says.

However, Ursula Matte of the medical genetics unit at Porto Alegre Hospital in Brazil and her colleagues reject any notion that Mengele was responsible for the phenomenon. Her team was invited to Linha São Pedro during 1994 to investigate reports of a higher than average number of twin births in the town.

[Via New Scientist]

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Creationism: The universe is so complex that it must have been created by an intelligent designer.

The better America Campaigners against the teaching of creationism in science classes are glad to hear that efforts to revise science standards in Texan schools have passed. Fifteen members of the Texas State Board of Education voted to get rid of wording that allowed the standing of evolution to be attacked for 20 years in Texan science lessons. The wording of textbooks (like, “proposed” in “proposed transitional fossils”) invited teachers and students to debate the validity of scientific theories and was used as a pretext to attack evolution.

Maybe Texan schools ought to teach intelligent design with similar syntax. “A supposed serpent tempted Eve, presumed to be the first woman, to eat from what was thought to be the tree of knowledge, I think.”

[Via New Scientist]

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The Vatican has condemned President Obama’s move that he made on Friday  to restore US funding for family planning clinics abroad that give advice on or carry out abortions.  While the White House says the move aligns the US with other nations fighting poverty and promoting health care, vatican officials are saying this move has dealt a blow to groups fighting against “the slaughter of the innocents.” Let’s not forget that there are other aspects to reproductive healthcare, i.e. STDs, that this funding will work on, not just abortion.

[Via BBC]

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