It seems like every week brings
new developments and breakthroughs in Genetic Engineering, and few announcements
have been bigger than the report that a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison
scientists were able to cultivate human stem cells. The possibilities
for future medical advances from this discovery are amazing.
The most immediate likely
use of the technology will be new diagnostic tests to screen hundreds
of thousands of compounds for possible medicinal properties. Ironic, isn’t
it — yet another technology that animal rights activists abhor might
ultimately lead to a further reduction in the number of animals used in
the drug development process (makes you kind of wonder where animal
rights activists think alternatives to animal testing come from. Do they
think they just drop from the sky?)
In the long run, the work
with stem cells could lead to all sorts of breathtaking developments from
growing heart muscle and brain tissue for transplantation to enhancing
understanding of the development of human embryos.
“Our hope is that these
cells could be grown in the laboratory and then used to regenerate failing
tissue,” said Thomas Okarma, vice president for research and development
at Geron Corporation, which paid for some of the stem cell research. “Because
these cells do not age, they could be used to generate virtually a limitless
supply of cells and tissues for transplantation.”