March 19th, 2010 by Jon LaPook, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research, Video
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Camouflaged in the politics, controversy, and hype surrounding stem cells have been two stunning and unexpected dividends: the ability to study diseases in a petrie dish and a new way to think about cancer. This is separate from the most well-publicized stem cell story: the potential of embryonic stem cells to morph into any cell in the body and replace injured or defective cells — for example in diabetes, Parkinson’s, and spinal cord injury.
Human embryonic stem cells (HES cells) are collected from unused embryos created by in-vitro fertilization. About two years ago, scientists figured out a way to turn ordinary skin cells into stem cells. This was a huge deal. These cells — called “induced pluripotents stem cells” (IPS cells) — are not identical to HES cells and may not be quite as nimble in morphing into other cells. But they are electrifying the field because diseases can now be studied outside the body – in a petrie dish. For example, researchers have taken skin from patients with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), turned them into stem cells, then turned the stem cells into the kind of nerve cells (motor neurons) damaged in the disease. Read more »
February 13th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Just heard a news story that researchers have identified three genes responsible for about 9 percent of stuttering. In the story, a woman who stuttered as a child and teenager and who now works with other stutterers was nearly in tears at the news. Her clients, she said, would be so happy to learn that their stuttering “wasn’t their fault.”
I’m happy for the stutterers of the world. But this story made me think about so many other things related to our health that we try to find an “out” for, something that makes it not our “fault.” The more we learn about the contribution of genes to human health, the more stories like the stuttering one we’ll hear. The thing is, our genes do not operate in a vacuum. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
December 20th, 2009 by Berci in Humor, Medical Art
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(Via Why Evolution is True)
Co-dominance?
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
November 9th, 2009 by Hsien-Hsien Lei, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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A little over two years ago, I confessed that I was “just a little scared of genetic testing.” I have two young children and almost every day I see traits in them that I’m pretty sure they inherited from me whether via genes or behavior. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you can imagine that there’s a lot of self-blame going on in our house.
So when it comes to genetic testing, I should want to know but I don’t. At least not right this minute. Haven’t I got enough to worry about?
From Middletown Journal’s month-long series on the battle against cancer – Many with cancer gene don’t want to know. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Eye on DNA*
October 10th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
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The tweet came just about an hour ago announcing the well-deserved and much-predicted award of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for their work on “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”
I wrote about this team and their accomplishments three years ago when the won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, considered the “American Nobel.”
I said then: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
