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Ethical worries have slowed medical research into applications for stem cells. But scientists like Robert Lanza have developed less controversial ways to derive stem cells from normal body cells rather than embryos and are already launching the first clinical trials. … (T)here is a world premiere in the making: Lanza’s team has cultivated blood platelets that could be tested in hospitals as early as this year. The researcher and his team didn’t harvest the cells from embryonic stem cells, but rather from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from normal body cells. …

Stem cells have gone mainstream. Companies are marketing their stem cell storage facilities as a prudent private investment.   A local tooth stem cell bank is open for business, offering to extract and store stem cells from children's lost baby teeth. Umbilical cord banking is also marketed directly to consumers. Cord blood is a rich source of stem cells, possibly rivaling that found in bone marrow. Expectant parents can arrange to store the blood from their newborn's umbilical cord in case the child ever requires stem cell treatment.   In contrast to private banks, parents can donate cord blood to public banks...

Would you try an untested medical treatment on the off-chance it could let you walk again? Canadian Hanna Czarnecki has traveled all the way to Russia for stem cell injections at a private clinic specializing in spinal cord injuries. Czarnecki is hopeful pioneering technologies that are less strongly regulated than in Western countries can bring her results she wouldn't be able to achieve here in Canada. Despite concerns from the medical community about such procedures, she says the choice is hers to make. Two years ago, near Woodstock, Ont., Czarnecki was paralyzed from the waist down. Now, she is hoping...

A world of patients with spinal cord injuries is watching Erica Nader.     HOW YOU CAN HELP The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, in Detroit, has established a scholarship fund to pay for rehabilitation therapy for people with spinal cord injuries. This year, it will fund two, one-year scholarships from $60,000 raised through a benefit hosted last year by Erica Nader, the first American to undergo stem cell surgery in Portugal for a spinal cord injury. Contributions can be sent to: Scholarship Fund, Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Development Office, 261 Mack Ave., Detroit 48201....

MOSCOW, December 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Russian news agency Novosti reported Monday that Russian scientists have succeeded in treating six individuals bed-ridden with spinal cord damage using non-embryonic stem cells derived from the patient's own nasal tissues. All six are learning to walk again. Scientists at the Neurology Clinic of Russia's Blokhin Oncology Research Center removed neural stem cells from the lining of the nose, which were then grown in tissue culture. The resulting cells were injected into damaged areas of the spine, re-growing damaged spinal segments one at a time. "No one has done anything like that before...

A report from South Korea of a paraplegic woman walking six weeks after undergoing a transplant with stem cells from umbilical cord blood is only part of a mounting list of successful therapies that are not dependent on destroying embryos. On the same day Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, took steps for reporters in Seoul with the aid of a walker, American and European studies were published that showed umbilical cord blood –- and the stem cells it includes -– could save the lives of many adults with leukemia who cannot find bone marrow donors, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, recent...