Embryonic Stem Cells and Disease Part 2 of 6

Brought to you by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, this lecture by Dr. Douglas A. Melton is part of a series of lectures devoted to a discussion about the nature of embryonic stem cells and their potential use in the treatment of human disease. Understanding the mechanisms by which particular cell types are generated are of primary concern to be able to fully harness the medicinal potential of embryonic stem cells.

HHMI description:
There are two main approaches to using stem cells to fight human diseases: develop stem cells to produce therapeutic replacement cells and study stem cells as a model for understanding the biology of a disease. Significant progress has been made in producing stem cell lines that, for example, participate in the regeneration of damaged nervous tissue. Many human diseases, such as juvenile diabetes (type 1 diabetes), involve malfunctioning genes and environmental triggers. Usually, a specific type of cell is primarily affected by the disease, and the cellular dysfunction produces the symptoms. In juvenile diabetes, the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas are destroyed. Insulin is critical to the proper regulation of sugar by the body, and its absence causes the severe condition called diabetes. Researchers want to coax embryonic stem cells into becoming healthy insulin-producing cells. These cells might then be transplanted into people with diabetes to produce the insulin they lack. Researchers are also interested in producing stem cells that malfunction exactly like the diseased cells in order to understand fundamental aspects of the disease and also to test treatments.

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Howto & Style

Tags:

• adult
• stem
• cells
• HHMI
• health
• medicine
• biology
• embryonic
• development
• regeneration
• evolution
• disease
• parkinson's

[Unklebillybob]

A proper prospective. Take a man with his specific DNA. Now take a woman with her specific DNA. They choose to mate and produce an offspring. There are a couple of positive possibilities; 1st they can produce one offspring or 2nd, They can produce multiple offsprings. In all cases, the DNA of the offspring(s) will be unique-not the same of the parents or each other.

So, You many ask? If you try cloning specifically, to get body parts to repair old organs, you are killing a unique human

[TrenchantAtheist]

Much agreed, hsmp.

More immediately, cloning has direct applications to pharmaceutical interests as they are able to engineer sheep with human enzymes in their milk. In fact, most people don't know that the first clone, Dolly, was made for specifically that reason! The only reason researchers wanted to clone sheep was to make it more economically viable for the production of medicine (it costs huge amounts of investment to produce a single sheep with medicinal milk)

[hsmp363]

p.s. Douglas Melton is THE MAN. when bush cut off funding for stem cell research, he created about 16 stem cell lines (each cost about $100,000/year to maintain) free to anyone who wanted to use them. he also talked personally with president bush and mitt romney, though they paid him no attention. he was also nominated most influential person of the year, behind barack obama and robert mugabe. oh yeah, and he's my professor. =)

[hsmp363]

the purpose of cloning is not to make "another you." freakin hollywood pressures us to fantasize about these identical selves that allow people to take over the world.

people need to realize the potential of cloning, which allows for the process of stem cell research.

for those of you who don't understand the importance of stem cell research, think about creating a kidney for someone with PKD or a good pancreas for someone with diabetes. think of the potential, not your stupid fantasies.

[Oxygaunt]

Yeah, a single egg (identical) twin would essentially be your clone, considering your genetic material is the same. So if you cloned yourself, you'd only make a twin of yourself, only at a different age.

[zenophas]

READ THIS YOU STUPID HUMANS! when you think of cloning, try always thinking of creating an artificial twin. Even though it may look almost identical it will have variations, this includes; Moderate genetic differences, giving the clone a rather alike but yet different appearance to it's original counterpart. Secondly, no creature in existence can possess the same mind, a conciseness cannot be inherited through sex or anything else. And lastly, reproductive clones can inherit gene sicknesses.

[gemininer]

lol, well maybe you should let your brain work a bit instead and answer my questions =)

[Junije1]

LOL, rest your brain for a bit...

[gemininer]

So is cloning like creating an identical twin brother or sister? I mean, our clone will not be you. It would be a totally different being, only it would share identical physical appearance with you. So the clone could have a totally different personality and character from that of the donor? Is there a big similarity between cloning and stem cell study?

[angel1025Angel]

i wonder how you would feel if you foung out you were cloned?