Is it ethical for scientists to conduct or benefit from research in another country if that research would be unlawful, or not generally accepted, in their own country? In a policy paper in PLoS Medicine Loane Skene, Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne, Australia, presents a unique “barometer” for gauging the ethics of such research.
Everyone hopes that one day stem cell-based regenerative medicine will help repair diseased tissue. Before then, it may be necessary to decipher the epigenetic signals that give stem cells their unique ability to self-renew and transform them into different cell types.
Expanding waistlines, unsightly bulges: people will gladly remove excess body fat to improve their looks. But unwanted fat also contains stem cells with the potential to repair defects and heal injuries in the body.
Stem cells are capable of developing into any other type of cell. Researchers have now detected a gene-family that is essential for regulating the differentiation potential and growth of stem cells.
Expanding waistlines, unsightly bulges: people will gladly remove excess body fat to improve their looks. But unwanted fat also contains stem cells with the potential to repair defects and heal injuries in the body.
Everyone hopes that one day stem cell-based regenerative medicine will help repair diseased tissue. Before then, it may be necessary to decipher the epigenetic signals that give stem cells their unique ability to self-renew and transform them into different cell types.
Researchers have found that mouse oocytes that fail to become fertilized during in vitro fertilization are nevertheless often capable of succeeding as “cytoplasmic donors” during a subsequent cloning step using so-called nuclear transfer.
Researchers from the University of Southern California received approximately $3.4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for stem cell research.
New Zealand and Swedish neuroscientists have traced the pathway adult neural stem cells travel along to repair the human brain, opening up an exciting new field of research that could potentially lead to treatments for many brain disorders.
With an aging population susceptible to stroke, Parkinson?s disease and other neurological conditions, and military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious limb injuries, the need for strategies that treat complex neurological impairments has never been greater.