Truck and Barter

I saw this article in an email from FierceBiotech.com. The goods news is that researchers effectively cured Parkinson's disease in rats, but the bad news is that all test animals then proceeded to grow tumors although benign. This shouldn't really come as a surprise as embryonic stem cells were used in the procedure. These are known to cause tumors. I should also note that the article says the lab is restricted from using certain types of stem cells because of government funding without noting that it was the supposedly prohibited type which was used. Although, this is qualified by pointing out some of the problems that could be associated with the stem cell line used, still, sloppy reporting. It also should be noted that the private sector has no such restrictions on it and neither would the $3 billion dollars that California has allocated for such research. Here's an excerpt:

The progress of science is paved with stories of high hopes and heartbreaks. But in a busy lab at the University of Rochester the two extremes have met in one dazzling yet devastating experiment.

Researchers there have for the first time essentially cured rats of a Parkinson's-like disease using human embryonic stem cells. But 10 weeks into the trial, they discovered brain tumours had begun to grow in every animal treated.

"Here we have this method that works so well to reverse the symptoms of Parkinson's," said lead investigator Steven Goldman, "But no matter how you look at it, it's an expanding mass and that's bad news."

None of the cells growing out of control were cancerous tumours. But as Dr. Goldman pointed out, "In the brain, nothing's benign."

One last note, I'm against the stem cell ban put in place as I think it can still be done ethically. That is without creating life for the purpose of destroying it as there are a lot of embryos out that there that are created for other reasons, but will never reach maturity so to speak.