Cloning Experts Get Together For Secret Tests, but send out press release...


Top cloning experts from Britain, South Korea, and the United States are working on ways to use stem cells to treat incurable diseases gathered here to kick-off a week-long secret experiment.

Yeah - a 'seekrit' meeting. uh huh. CLASSIFIED: Super Secret Secret Squirrel

You know, I just realized something... The Medical section of my blog has, by far, the coolest stuff. A different kind of cool though. This one will effect each and every living thing on the planet - in OUR lifetime (and guess who is first on the list when its ready ). This is big stuff, if you know what I mean.

For those of you that don't have squirrels where you live, here is the definition:

squirrel |ˈskwər(ə)l| |ˌskwər(ə)l| |ˌskwɪr(ə)l|
noun
an agile tree-dwelling rodent with a bushy tail, typically feeding on nuts and seeds. • Family Sciuridae: several genera, in particular Sciurus, and numerous species.
• a related rodent of this family ( see ground squirrel , flying squirrel ).

and here is Super Secret Secret Squirrel & his partner Morocco Mole (I don't have any pics of the geneticists):

Anyway - enough of me... on to the story. Those that know, know that I'm not poking fun at the geneticists. Honestly, this is amazingly amazing:
Top cloning experts from Britain, South Korea, and the United States are working on ways to use stem cells to treat incurable diseases gathered here to kick-off a week-long secret experiment.
The scientists were led by South Korea's Hwang Woo-Suk, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the creator of the cloned sheep Dolly, Professor Ian Wilmut of Scotland's Roslin Institute.
They would not say what the experiment would be about, but said it was expected to be over early next week.
Schatten however told journalists it would be a scientific "milestone" and indicated it could be aimed at combining achievements made in cloning and stem cell research to develop ways to treat incurable diseases.
Hwang, a professor at Seoul National University, and Schatten are co-authors of a landmark study published in May in which they said they had produced "therapeutic" stem cells.
These stem cells carry the identical genes of patients because they are extracted from cloned human embryos produced by combining adult cells from the patients and human eggs from donors, the scientists said.
This means they will not be rejected by the patients' immune systems, they said.
Hwang's team also took a significant step forward in inter-species organ transplants in May.
The team found ways to prevent monkeys rejecting organ transplants from pigs, paving the way for the use of animal organs and cells in humans to replace cells ravaged by illnesses such as Parkinson's and diabetes.

Posted: Tue - August 2, 2005 at 07:06 PM          

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