Bioethics.net

May 18, 2012

CNN’s Selling A Miracle? Investigates Controversial Stem Cell Therapy Clinics (CNN)

Dr. Geeta Shroff began her career as an obstetrician, transitioned to pediatrics, but says that her work treating infertility eventually led her to develop embryonic stem cell therapies.  She now treats patients with diseases ranging from neurodegenerative disorders such as ALS, to spinal cord injuries, to cerebral palsy and genetic disorders at her clinic, the Nu Tech Mediworld Nursing Home in New Delhi, which she describes as the world’s only medical facility “using embryonic stem cells to treat patients on a daily basis.”

Apr 25, 2012

Embryonic Stem Cells in Court Again (The Scientist)

National Institutes of Health guidelines released in 2009 lifted the Bush-era restrictions on hESC research, but were met with a lawsuit by adult stem cell researchers that August. A preliminary injunction by the US District Court in Washington, DC, prevented NIH funding for hESCs in August 2010. Just 2 weeks later, the US Court of Appeals for the District Court stayed the injunction, then overturned it for good in April 2011—3 months before the appeals court dismissed the lawsuit altogether. Now, the case is once again in appeals court, and current arguments focus on whether this earlier decision is binding.

Apr 21, 2012

Pitcher hopes stem cell procedure will get him one last season (CNN)

t 39 years old, Christopher John Nitkowski really has no business trying to pitch in the major leagues. In the harsh reality of professional sports, he’s a has-been. Just don’t tell him that.

Apr 20, 2012

Can Stem Cells Finally Provide a Baldness Cure That Works? (Gizmodo)

There has been no shortage of baldness cures over the ages, but they all share one thing in common: none of them really work. Now, a team of scientists has used stem cell therapy to give a hairless mouse a mohawk. There is hope yet. The researchers, from the Tokyo University of Science, have seized on the concept of using stem cells to provide regenerative medicine, and given it a twist. Actually, maybe more of a curl, because they hit on the idea of using the therapy—usually reserved for restoring organs damaged by disease or illness—to regenerate hair follicles.

Apr 12, 2012

China’s stem-cell rules go unheeded (Nature)

Three months after the Chinese health ministry ramped up its efforts to enforce a ban on the clinical use of unapproved stem-cell treatments, a Nature investigation reveals that businesses around the country are still charging patients thousands of dollars for these unproven therapies.

Apr 09, 2012

Scientists rewrite rules of human reproduction (The Independent)

The first human egg cells that have been grown entirely in the laboratory from stem cells could be fertilised later this year in a development that will revolutionise fertility treatment and might even lead to a reversal of the menopause in older women. Scientists are about to request a licence from the UK fertility watchdog to fertilise the eggs as part of a series of tests to generate an unlimited supply of human eggs, a breakthrough that could help infertile women to have babies as well as making women as fertile in later life as men.

Apr 09, 2012

Stem cell clinic that 'preyed on the vulnerable’ (The Telegraph)

Apr 02, 2012

Stem cell institute to work with foreign agencies (SF Gate)

California’s $3 billion stem cell agency, now more than 7 years old, has joined research partnerships with science and health agencies in eight foreign countries, the San Francisco institute announced. The agreements call for collaboration in efforts aimed at speeding stem cell research from the laboratory to the hospital, where researchers hope that basic human cells will be programmed to treat scores of human degenerative diseases.

Mar 28, 2012

Stem Cells Revisited (Inside Higher Ed)

Embryonic stem cell research — a bitterly partisan federal issue that has been debated in previous presidential campaigns — has been almost absent from the early stages of this year’s presidential race. The practice, which was allowed on an extremely limited basis under President George W. Bush, has expanded since President Obama took office and seems to have faded somewhat from the national political scene. Proponents say the research has the potential to cure serious diseases, while critics believe harvesting and studying the cells is immoral.

Mar 27, 2012

Canceled Stem Cell Conference is Another Black Eye for the Vatican (Forbes)

Whatever merits Pope Benedict deserves as a theologian, his papacy seems to be marked by one public relations debacle after another. The latest black eye comes with the report this past Friday that the Pontifical Academy for Life is canceling a much publicized stem cell conference that was to take place next month, featuring (among many others) speakers like Douglas Melton and George Daley, leading researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.