Dear Correspondents/Immortalists,

You maybe interested in this item of news , that I downloaded
recently.

Yours Progressively,
Edmont.


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This item of news from :

http://www.stemcellresearchnews.com/

Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 08:38:29 GMT


AMID all the hand-wringing over embryonic stem-cell research, an alternativ
e
line of inquiry that avoids the moral quandary has been ignored, says a
member of the executive committee of the National Stem-Cell Research Centre
headed by Alan Trounson.
The University of Adelaide's professor of biochemistry, Peter Rathjen, said

yesterday the process of dedifferentiation would detour the ethical dilemmas

of embryonic stem-cell research.
But in the "hysteria" over the embryonic stem-cell research bill, and the
distraction over whether Professor Trounson misled federal MPs, the debate
had lost sight of the power of science to overcome as well as create moral
hurdles, Professor Rathjen said.

The National Centre for Stem-Cell Research was due to open on October 1,
but the federal Government is now reviewing its $46 million funding because
of Professor Trounson's misleading use of a video of a rat in the briefing.
The centre's executive committee met last week to prepare the scientific
program if and when money is released -- including dedifferentiation.

"This is precisely one of the areas of interest to the centre, precisely
because it is a way of overcoming the immuno-rejection issue and the ethical

issue," Professor Rathjen said.
"The stem-cell centre is doing a lot of research that people would support
that hasn't got out."
Dedifferentiation involves taking an adult cell from perhaps skin or blood,

and reversing its development to create stem-cells without an embryo.
Scientists would then grow and differentiate the stem cells into the type o
f
cells required to be transplanted.
"Everyone knows what we are hoping to do with cell therapy -- taking cells
outside the body and transplanting them. How do you overcome human rejection
?
Using dedifferentiation," Professor Rathjen said.
It was time for "hardcore, basic research" to test dedifferentiation, even
to work out how and why it works.
"A stem-cell centre will enable Australian researchers to compete properly
in this area of stem-cell research where we are probably starting to lag a
bit," Professor Rathjen said.
Professor Trounson was forced to apologise when it was revealed last month
that a crippled rat in the video had not been cured with embryonic stem cell
s,
as he had claimed. The rat, instead, had been treated with germ cells taken
from five- to nine-week-old aborted fetuses.



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