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Vitamin C could be used to overcome hurdles in creating stem cells for treating human diseases, scientists believe. The vitamin boosts the reprogramming of adult cells to give them the properties of embryonic stem cells. Scientists who made the discovery believe it may help them overcome long-standing problems in creating the reprogrammed cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

A man who faced amputation after he broke a leg while rock climbing spoke today of a revolutionary new stem cell technique which fused it back together again. Andrew Kent's right leg broke in five places when a large boulder fell on him as he climbed with his son in the Langdale Pikes in the Lake District in April. He was taken to the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle where he underwent three operations to pin the bones back together.

An Australian man who was confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis has made a remarkable recovery after receiving a groundbreaking stem cell treatment. Ben Leahy, 20, was diagnosed with the disease in 2008 and lost the ability to stand within a few months. However, a new procedure to combat the disease has helped him regain his health and he is now walking again.

Educate for a Better Economy Sarah Carlsruh, December 11, 2009 “The unemployment rate is 10 percent but businesses are struggling to fill 2.6 million jobs because applicants lack required skills” observed a December 12th Politico article. In an effort to remedy this disconnect, the Business Roundtable recently launched The Springboard Project, an effort by a group of education and business leaders to develop policy recommendations to improve U.S. education and work training. According to their December report, “the United States ranks second-to-last among developed nations in postsecondary completion rates.” William D. Green, chairman of The Springboard Project said that: “Improving...

The Obama administration on Wednesday approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health authorized 11 lines of cells produced by scientists at the Children's Hospital in Boston and two lines created by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York. All were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility.

A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research makes great strides in addressing a major practical challenge in the development of stem-cell-based medicine. The findings were published in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature Methods on October 18, 2009. The new technique, which uses three small drug-like chemicals, is 200 times more efficient and twice as fast as conventional methods for transforming adult human cells into stem cells (in this case...

Check out the latest video from Steven Crowder

Obama’s anti-life ideology ... Obama is not opposed to restricting adult stem cell research, because the same executive order which gives funding to embryonic stem cell research takes away funding from adult stem cell research. This is a senseless move on the part of the president; the only stem cell research he is interested in funding is precisely the most dangerous kind, the only kind that a large segment of the population is opposed to on moral grounds, and the only one that has consistently failed to produce the promised ‘miracle cure’ results. If he were really concerned about life-saving...

News to Note: A weekly feature examining news from the biblical viewpoint March 14, 2009 In this issue: 1. AP: “More Americans Say They Have No Religion” 2. LiveScience: “Scientists See God on the Brain” 3. ScienceNOW: “Arrest That Chimp!” 4. BBC News: “Obama Ends Stem Cell Funding Ban” 5. ScienceDaily: “Live Evolution Witnessed In Controlled Environment Of Microbial Predator And Prey” 6. Washington Post: “The Genesis of a Debate” (The Washington Post follows along on a creationist journey through the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) And much more at the following link:

JESUS CARITASWhat should science trump?By Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted | March 10, 2009 | The Catholic Sun On Monday, March 9, President Obama signed an executive order that provides federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. This means that American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results.We U.S. taxpayers will now be forced to pay, whether we wish to or not, for the killing of our youngest brothers...

...President Obama’s reversal of the embryonic stem cell ban sentences these embryos to the category of disposable life, a clear indicator that the president values the free exercise of science over the life of the unborn. But there is much more to the president’s decision. Dr. Guliuzza continued:

Elect Obama, Get Embryonic Stem CellsMarch 8, 2009 — President Obama is about to fulfill one of his campaign promises: lifting restrictions on creating new embryonic stem cell lines (see Fox News).  The question now is, are they really needed?  They have yet to show any successes, while adult stem cells are enjoying an accelerating boom of amazing discoveries that could provide hope for some of mankind’s worst disorders. (Note: ESC = embryonic stem cells, ASC = adult stem cells). Muscular dystrophy:  Children and adults plagued by the muscle-wasting malady of muscular dystrophy may now have hope thanks to...

Even for strong backers of embryonic stem cell research, the decision is no longer as self-evident as it was, because there is markedly diminished need for expanding these cell lines for either patient therapy or basic research. In fact, during the first six weeks of Obama's term, several events reinforced the notion that embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes, are obsolete. The most sobering: a report from Israel published in PLoS Medicine in late February that shows embryonic stem cells injected into patients can cause disabling if not deadly tumors.

Scientists have overcome a major barrier to human use. Monday, March 02, 2009 By Emily Singer In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan reported that they could reprogram mouse skin cells to an embryonic-like state by adding four genes, since dubbed the Yamanaka factors. These cells, called induced pluripotent cells, can be transformed into different types of cells and tissues, and hold promise for studying disease and developing cell replacement therapies. However, scientists inserted the genes using viruses, making the cells unsuitable for human use. Now, for the first time, British and Canadian scientists have...

Any day now, as he promised, President Obama will likely lift funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research imposed by former President Bush. Bush had sought the council of leading scientists and ethicists before making his decision. Obama, by contrast, will be yielding to the opinions of the scientific societies who have clamored for years that they need and want access to these morally-questionable cells. It’s a good time to ask if the research to date has been promising. .... Rats given the adult stem cells recovered significant motor activity one week after injury, Live Science reported. But ES cell...

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, an international test of fourth- and eighth-grade student achievement, recently released its latest results. As in prior years, the mean U.S. scores were roughly on par with those in most developed nations in Europe, though well below those in Asia. But students in other developed nations far outpaced U.S. students in top-level science scores. For instance, only 10 percent of American eighth-graders performed at the highest level in science, placing the U.S. 11th among the tested nations and well behind countries such as England (17 percent), Japan (17 percent), and Singapore (an...

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Japanese scientists said Friday they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using embryos... (AFP articles cannot be republished)Click here for the article.

Governor Paterson announced $109 million in funding for stem cell research yesterday as part of a $600 million initiative approved in last year’s budget. ... Yesterday’s announcement coincided with a convocation ceremony at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. “Human embryonic stem cells offer an unprecedented opportunity to study all aspects of human development,” the hospital’s president, Dr. Harold Varmus, said in a statement.

John Edwards had a lot he wanted to say at the Democratic National Committee's fall meeting on Nov. 30. In a fiery speech, he ran down a litany of issues such as Iraq, health care and workers' rights, going well over his allotted 10 minutes and stepping on the other presidential candidates' time. But as lengthy as his remarks were, there was one issue he never mentioned: stem cells. He wasn't alone. Barack Obama didn't address the topic in his speech, either. Nor did any of the other candidates present. Stem cells also slipped the minds of DNC chairman Howard...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2007 – Lacking technology that can see bombs inside cars or explosive vests under clothing, coalition forces are getting help from local concerned citizen groups to get “ahead of the blast” in what officials say is the most effective way to stem those types of violence. Officials are using the surge of tips from local groups to attack networks of insurgent activities. The payoff has been a 60-percent drop in attacks in the country in the past six months, Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, director of communications and deputy spokesman for Multinational Corps Iraq, said in...

Tuesday's announcement that scientists had found a noncontroversial way to make cells equivalent to human embryonic stem cells did not just change the scientific and ethical landscape. It generated economic and geopolitical tremors through California, New York and about half a dozen other states that have invested -- in some cases heavily -- in embryonic stem cell programs and research centers.

The scientist who helped ignite cultural and political controversy with the use of embryos in stem-cell research believes his new discovery – using ordinary adult skin cells – means the war is virtually over. "A decade from now, this will be just a funny historical footnote," James A. Thomson told the New York Times in an interview. Thomson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that announced Tuesday a new way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using a human embryo. The technique involves adding four genes to...

Hopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections. Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 – Tribal leaders are cooperating with U.S. and Iraqi security forces to reduce terrorist-staged violence in Diyala province, senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials said today. U.S. and Iraqi officials have urged prominent sheikhs in Diyala province “to work with their people to become part of the security process and part of the political process (to) drive a wedge (between) the terrorists and any auxiliary support or direct support that they may receive from the people,” Army Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, said from his headquarters...

THE NEW BARBARIANS Politicians in the Democratic Party hypocritically complain about the 3,000 American soldiers who have died in Iraq these past four years. But what about the FOUR MILLION unborn Americans that have died these past four years because the Democratic Party refuses to support a Human Life Amendment to our Constitution that would make abortion unlawful? In addition, what about the thousands of human beings that will die because of the Democratic Party's approval of embryonic stem cell research? Unlike adult stem cell & umbilical cord blood research, there exists only wishful thinking & false promises, but no...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2007 – For the new U.S. strategy in Iraq to succeed, Iraqis must work in concert with American military forces toward ending sectarian violence, President Bush said today during his weekly radio address. “Their leaders understand this, and they are stepping forward to do it,” the president said. “But they need our help, and it is in our interests to provide that help.” Bush said ending sectarian violence and providing security for the Iraqi people would help foster a political solution to the country’s problems. During a Jan. 10 televised address to the nation, the president...

It looms as the ultimate "repair kit" for elite athletes — stem cells harvested from their newborn's umbilical cord used to treat career-threatening injuries. The Sunday Times reported recently that at least five professional soccer players in England have had stem cells from the blood of their children's umbilical cords frozen. It's being done to protect their progeny in the event of future illness, but is also seen by some of the athletes as a potential aid to fix their own damaged cartilage and ligaments in the future. One unidentified Premier League player told the British newspaper: "As a footballer,...

FARMERS BRANCH – ... residents crowded into the council chambers to discuss whether the city should restrict illegal immigrants through such measures as making it illegal for landlords to lease property to them; fining businesses that employ them; making English the city's official language; and halting funding for children of illegal immigrants to participate in ... youth programs. Those ideas, by council member Tim O'Hare, were borrowed from ordinances adopted by Hazelton, Pa., and under consideration by cities in California, Florida and elsewhere. Mayor Pro Tem Ben Robinson had more ideas. He suggested that the council also consider prohibiting the...

Oregon's two senators voted with the Senate majority Tuesday to overturn the president's limits on embryonic stem-cell research, setting the stage for the first veto of the Bush administration. "Please, Mr. President, don't veto this bill," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., noting that his family has a history of Parkinson's disease. "Such a veto, I fear, may only throw out hope, healing and human life along with the unused embryos." Sixty-three senators voted to allow federally funded researchers to conduct medical research on surplus embryos from fertility clinics. The bipartisan vote was enough to move the bill to the president's...

06/14/06 -- Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Calgary have found that stem cells derived from adult skin can create neural cell types that can be transplanted into and function in mouse models of disease. This research is reported in the June 14, 2006 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. SickKids researchers previously discovered what type of cells can be made from these stem cells (called skin-derived precursors, or SKPs) based on the role played by neural-crest stem cells during embryogenesis. In addition to generating the peripheral nervous system, neural crest stem cells generate...

Maryland will become one of four states that have agreed to fund stem cell research, following final passage yesterday of legislation in the House of Delegates and a pledge from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) to sign it, despite misgivings by most lawmakers in his party. With Ehrlich's signature, the state will offer as much as $15 million in grants in the coming year to university and private-sector researchers seeking treatments for debilitating conditions through work on stem cells, including those derived from human embryos.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - God sees embryos as "full and complete" humans, Pope Benedict said on Wednesday in an address that firmly underlined the Roman Catholic Church's stance against abortion and scientific research on embryos. "The loving eyes of God look on the human being, considered full and complete at its beginning," Benedict said in his weekly address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square. Quoting Psalm 139, Benedict said the Bible teaches that God already recognises the embryo as a complete human. That view is the basis for the Church teaching that aborting or manipulating these embryos amounts...

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - British scientists have successfully repaired patients' damaged livers by using bone marrow stem cells from their own blood. The victim is first injected with a drug which stimulates their bone marrow to produce extra stem cells. The stem cells are then harvested from the blood and injected into a vein or artery leading directly to the liver. Although the researchers are unsure what the cells then do they seem to help repair any liver damage, reports New Scientist. The finding raises the prospect of regenerating diseased livers and avoid problems with current liver transplants where...

Researchers have discovered that certain cells inside the hair follicle are true multipotent stem cells, capable of developing into the many different cell types needed for hair growth and follicle replacement. 6 Oct 2005, 09:42 GMT - Using an animal model scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have demonstrated that these holoclones can be used for long-term follicle renewal. The researchers isolated stem cells from rat whisker follicles, labeled them and grew them in culture for 140 generations. They then implanted progeny cells into the skin of newborn mice whose hair follicles were just being formed. This...

Fertility expert Lord Winston says the potential benefits of embryonic stem cell research have probably been oversold to the public. He will warn in a speech on Monday that if science fails to deliver on some of the hype around the cells - as he fears will happen - there will be a backlash. He says the notion that a host of cures for serious, degenerative disorders are just around the corner is fanciful. Lord Winston believes some of the uncertainties need to be emphasised. "Both in Britain and America, huge publicity has been given to stem cells, particularly embryonic...

A team of Texas and British researchers says it has produced large amounts of embryoniclike stem cells from umbilical cord blood, potentially ending the ethical debate affecting stem-cell research -- the need to kill human embryos. The international researchers said the cells -- called cord-blood-derived-embryoniclike stem cells, or CBEs -- have the ability to turn into any kind of body tissue, like embryonic stem cells do, and can be mass-produced using technology derived from NASA.

Option to stem cells found Pitt experts say placental cells offer palatable alternative Friday, August 05, 2005 By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette     University of Pittsburgh researchers have discovered that one type of cell in the human placenta has characteristics that are strikingly similar to embryonic stem cells in their ability to regenerate a wide variety of tissues. The cells, called amniotic epithelial cells, potentially could be used to produce new liver cells to treat liver failure, or new pancreatic islet cells to cure diabetes or new neurons to treat Parkinson's disease. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are obtained...

With his Friday speech on the Senate floor announcing his support for federal funding of new embryonic stem cell research, Senate majority leader Bill Frist did the wrong thing at the wrong time. For four years, embryo research advocates have claimed that the Bush administration has "banned stem cell research." Not so. The issue in question is federal funding for embryonic stem cell research--research in which new embryos will be destroyed. Such research has been, and is, legal, and while the president has endorsed a ban on human cloning, he has not proposed to outlaw the destruction of embryos created...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lawmakers in the US Senate introduced legislation designed to stem a flood of illegal immigration across America's southern borders. "This bill strengthens our border enforcement and comprehensively reforms our immigration system, said Republican Senator John Cornyn, one of the authors of the bill, The Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005. "We need both stronger enforcement and reasonable reform of our immigration laws," he said. "In the past, we have not devoted the funds, the resources, or the manpower to enforce our immigration laws or protect our borders," said Cornyn, of the southwestern state of Texas,...

The U.S. Congress is poised to pour unlimited funds into embryonic stem cell research that not only destroys innocent human life, but it has shown no substantial promise as a curative and threatens the health of women worldwide. So much for “progress and advancement.” After more than 20 years, embryonic stem cell research has not yielded a single cure. During this same time, adult stem cells have been used to treat people with heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and at least 50 other documented conditions. The focus on therapeutic cloning has been aimed at our heartstrings, prophesying cures...

It seems like each day we hear about a headline touting embryonic stem cell research as the great medical “savior.” During the 2004 elections we were told this research would help paralyzed people walk, and cure Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. We regularly are bombarded with news about how great South Korea is. It can be easy to get caught up in all this hype. It is also understandable we want to do something to prevent these horrible, devastating diseases. However, we must not sell our soul for a mess of pottage as we seek a cure for these diseases.

Leading Italian Catholic politicians have defied a call by the Vatican to boycott a two-day referendum on assisted procreation. They included President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi who was among the first to vote when the polls opened on Sunday. (...) The turnout in this referendum is crucial. Unless 50% of Italy's 40 million voters turn out to cast their votes, the referendum will be invalid. About 13% had voted by 1900 local time (1700 GMT), according to partial figures released by the interior ministry. Polls are due to close at 2200 on Sunday and reopen at 0700 on Monday. Italians are...

Scientists at Australia's Griffith University have engineered a breakthrough in the field of adult stem cell research that's so significant, say experts, that it could render the debate over embryonic stem cell research moot. The results of the four year research project showed that olfactory stem cells can be turned into heart cells, brain cells, nerve cells, indeed almost any kind of cell in the body, without the problems of rejection or tumors forming, a common side effect with embryonic stem cells.

Why is the president threatening to veto the dem cell research bill? If we can find a cure for liberals, shouldn't we try?

Wired News reports that South Korean scientists have made a dramatic breakthrough by deriving stem cells from cloned embryos of patients with spinal cord injuries. It shouldn't be long before we can expect have a set of replacement parts ready when our own wear out." From the article: "Researchers must test the cells in animals before they can try the therapy in humans. But embryonic stem-cell researchers were shocked and delighted by the advance, which many had referred to as a distant possibility until they saw this study by Woo Suk Hwang and his colleagues at Seoul National University, which...

11:21am 05/20/05 Bush warns veto on stem cell billBy Maggie McNeil WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- President Bush said Friday he would veto a bill to allow federal funding of research on stem cells if the research could destroy human embryos. Bush made his remarks in a question-and-answer session with reporters after a meeting with the Danish prime minister. Congress is expected to vote as soon as next week on a bipartisan bill to lift Bush's 2001 ban on the use of federal dollars for research using any new embryonic stem cell lines.

Some will think it a romantic gesture, others will find it grisly. But one willing couple in the UK is about to get the chance, thanks to a government-funded project intended to promote awareness of the issues surrounding tissue engineering. "It's for people who want to give a bit of their body to each other," says Nikki Stott, a jewellery designer at the Royal College of Art in London. She and her colleague Tobie Kerridge are collaborating with Ian Thomspon, a bioengineer at King's College London. The tricky part is that the lucky couple will have to provide bone cell...

LOS ANGELES - The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine doesn't have a home, any money, or even a single employee, but the head of the new state agency expects to be awarding its first grants for stem cell research by May. "We have a responsibility to move as quickly as possible," Robert Klein said Thursday. "I admit that I am an optimist." The institute was created by California voters in November when they approved a $3 billion bond to fund stem cell research over the next decade. The 29-member committee appointed to manage the institute met Thursday and began to...

A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago. Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy. They said it was the world's first published case in which a patient with spinal cord injuries had...