Stem Cells For 10 Diseases Created By Harvard Scientists

NEW YORK — Harvard scientists say they have created stems cells for 10 genetic disorders, which will allow researchers to watch the diseases develop in a lab dish.

This early step, using a new technique, could help speed up efforts to find treatments for some of the most confounding ailments, the scientists said.

The new work was reported online Thursday in the journal Cell, and the researchers said they plan to make the cell lines readily available to other scientists.

Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute used ordinary skin cells and bone marrow from people with a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's, Huntington's and Down syndrome to produce the stem cells.

The new cells will allow researchers to "watch the disease progress in a dish, that is, to watch what goes right or wrong," Doug Melton, co-director of the institute, said during a teleconference.

"I think we'll see in years ahead that this opens the door to a new way to treating degenerative diseases," he said.

The new technique reprograms cells, giving them the chameleon-like qualities of embryonic stem cells, which can morph into all kinds of tissue, such as heart, nerve and brain. As with embryonic stem cells, the hope is to speed medical research.

Research teams in Wisconsin and Japan were the first to report last November that they had reprogrammed skin cells, and that the cells had behaved like stem cells in a series of lab tests. Just last week, another Harvard team of scientists said they reprogrammed skin cells from two elderly patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and grew them into nerve cells.

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Melton said the new disease-specific cell lines "represent a collection of degenerative diseases for which there are no good treatments and, more importantly, no good animal models for the most part in studying them."

A new laboratory has been created to serve as a repository for the cells, and to distribute them to other scientists researching the diseases, Melton said.

"The hope is that this will accelerate research and it will create a climate of openness," said Daley.

He expects stem cell lines to be developed for many more diseases, noting, "this is just the first wave of diseases." Other diseases for which they created stem cells are Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes; two types of muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease and a rare genetic disorder known as the "bubble boy disease."

Daley stressed that the reprogrammed cells won't eliminate the need or value of studying embryonic stem cells.

"At least for the foreseeable future, and I would argue forever, they are going to be extremely valuable tools," he said.

The reprogramming work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and private contributions to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

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On the Net:

Harvard Stem Cell Institute: http://www.hsci.harvard.edu

Comments

[RaWash]

idiots who say this will make the argument for embryonic stem cells less valid, please read the damn article again. thank you

[Destin]

Harvard, isn't this where Bush claims to have an MBA from?? And is he gonna send out his attack dogs?? Bush doesn't care whether the stem cells come from skin, marrow or something other than embryo's. "Stem cells" is a political phrase used by Neocons to make the pro-life people happy, but banning them in all forms. If they can't stop it on religious grounds, they'll try it on ethical grounds, stating that Harvard is "playing God" and their new methods are "tatamount to a cloning process".

Harvard might have stem cells for 10 diseases, but 0 is how many diseases that they will be allowed to be used on, by order of Big Bother Bush, his Pharma PAC and Army of God.

[situationcritical]

Umm, what 10 diseases? Did I scan over it too fast without seeing which ones?

[chicago25624]

Impossible. We have been told over and over by the wrong side, this can only be done by killing eggs.

[bb922335]

As a practicing Christian, I say, sweet. No issues with it. They CREATED them making the arguement for embryonic stem cell use weaker. I am all for it.

[DayoftheLiberal]

DISCARDED embryos- what's wrong with getting them out of the trash to save some suffering instead of taking them out to the dumpster?

Where, exactly, does the Bible tell us to put the embryos in the dumpster?

[DayoftheLiberal]

Why is it OK for a fertility clinic to create embryos and then destroy them?

[Yankeegirl1958]

From the limited amount of knowledge I have on this issue I don't see why Christians have a problem with it. The fertility clinics end up throwing the embryos in the trash. Why can't they be used for medical research?

I think there is a lot of misinformation on this issue. I personally don't see a conflict.

[BEHM777]

Not all Christians ma'am. I am a Christian. I don't see a conflict either.

BEHusseinM777

[MourningDude]

Most embryos that are 'thrown in the trash' were never donated to research by the parents.

You can't force people to donate them to science. Those that have been donated to science DON'T get thrown in the trash. They get set aside. So the whole "they're going in the trash, what a waste" argument is fundamentally flawed.

[BEHM777]

The "unused" embryos are discarded and/or destroyed, which means any potential good they posses is utterly wasted. What is wrong with studying stems cells from embryos that were going to be discarded anyway? They weren't going to be implanted in any uterus, my friend.

BTW, I am a practicing Christian as well, however, I am not a right wing ideologue. I have NEVER understood the objection to using embryonic stem cells. Can you tell me why it is better to throw the embryos away or destroy them, rather than to explore/unlock their potential to help science cure debilitating diseases? From what I gather from people that hold the view you have expressed, you would be against the destruction of the frozen embryos. In reality aren't the embryos being destroyed either way? Why not try to accrue a benefit for mankind from that "destruction"?

BEHusseinM777

[MourningDude]

The reality is that you can't force IVF parents to donate excess embryos for research, and there simply are not enough donated embryos available to sustain a massive amount of new research into creating ES stem cell lines.

At the current success rate for creating new lines, the entire supply of donated embryos would be exhausted to produce about 10-20 new lines, if I remember correctly. And then 5 years from now the scientists would be back complaining about contamination, and how they need new lines, and need the feds to ease ethics regulations further and further to let them do so.

Just like you can't force women to donate eggs for research. You can ask them. You can bribe them. But you can't force them. And the supply is so little that researchers in England are now using cow eggs to get around the supply problems.

This is a much, much better solution. Just because there are embryos sitting in the freezer somewhere doesn't mean you have to kill them when something better is available.

[bb922335]

My only issue is...if we don't have to use embryonic stem cells, because there are other alternative stem cells that work just as well or better, then why use them?

This issue is not biblical, its ethical...and my stance is only my opinion based on MY view of the ethics surrounding it. I can respect both sides of this issue, because the positives of research far outweigh the negatives. I am only saying, why use embryonic when you have another option.

[DayoftheLiberal]

I've lived with Type I Diabetes for 33 years, since I was 7 years old. I can't see well enough to read or drive a car anymore. I have nerve damage to my stomach (gastroparesis) that is very painful and further complicates the task of controlling blood sugar.

I was able to read, drive, work, eat normally, support my family in 2000. Today it is different.

How much longer do we have to wait?

[IA2008]

I hear that. Last March my son started his 20th year of being 3-5 years from a cure for Type 1.

[leekinny]

My wife and I both have MS to the point we are disabled. It limits much of what we can do in our lives, but we keep going. Our disease is not on the list. But it gives us hope and that's always very important.

[PennP]

That they're doing ALS is a very good sign re other degenerative neurological disorders. Hopefully they will add MS soon. It's possible that ALS has a better-defined genetic connection; I think they're still trying to pin it down in MS. Good luck to you and your wife.

[kellygrrrl]

and cue the crazees in 5, 4, 3 ...

[Kevbo68]

Collect all 10! Trade them with friends! Be the first kid on your block with a cure for cancer!

[1differentdrummer]

That is specifically prohibited in the Bible. Oh, you mean it isn't? Never mind.

[AmbroseChapel]

Eight years...

[BEHM777]

Those elitist Harvard scientists...

Good thing they are on our side, huh?

BEHusseinM777

[Superbus]

Lost on most posters is the fact that embryonic stem cells were not used. It's existing adult stem cells that have the most to offer and this just proves it.

[Dynamohum]

I am going to say this once - Adult stem cells do not preclude the possibility that embryonic stem cells are even more effective than the adult. Just because one test is done, a religious zealot concludes that it proves that embryonic cells have nothing to offer.

Ignorance is as ignorance does I say.

Embryonic stem cells might just offer even more avenues for treatments, cures, etc; but until we do some testing a new lines of cells we will never know.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Yea right, I suppose you’re a microbiologist. My brother-in-law is and a Yale grad, and has published papers on this very subject, while some chiropractor from the Family Research Council, pretending to be a doctor claims that the potential is limited. Adult stem cells can and do work well in certain cancer treatments, but the potential of embryonic stems must be explored. If your against embryonic stem cell research, utilizing left over embryos from in vitro fertization, then the religious right must petition the Congress to end this practice, since the extra embryos end up aborted as medical waste anyway. I for one rather see my tax money used in saving lives instead of taking them in illegal aggressive wars.

[javaman]

you're an idiot.

your total sum of knowledge in this field couldn't fill a thimble.

go away.

[kellygrrrl]

please.

[MarDam]

You aren't understanding completely. These are tools that allow scientists to see how diseases progress. They take the place of things like animal models for other diseases.

[ymax]

Your censsorship is Worse then in China.

[LibDrummer]

Absolutly! I think they are affarid of shawn Hanniity taking something out of context from the site and blaming them. They have buzz words you can never use, really pathetic and sad, not very progressive or liberal.

[jamesinraro]

It is becoming clearer than ever that we are not destined to live with the genetic inheritance of our parents and ancestors. First it was announced by Dr. Sinclair at Harvard that transmax resveratrol, a commercial extract of the red wine molecule that is used by scientists to test for its effects, was able to switch on the SirT1 anti-aging gene and prevent the normal diseases of aging, then scientists reported that a drug called Aircar that had been around for decades is capable or making sedentary mice into olympic contenders by modifying their muscles and increasing their endurance and now Harvard has come up with a way to create customized stem cells to treat specific diseases. In ten years we will hopefully wean ourselves from synthetic drugs by either preventing disease or treating it with our own body's defenses.

[markusmarkus]

I heard it was a chemical in Budweiser that is able to switch on the SirT1 anti-aging gene. Ooops, I meant Coors Light - me bad!