IF ONLY W HADN'T BANNED STEM CELL RESEARCH...:

Breathe in deeply, please: Stem-cell medicine takes a step forward (The Economist, Nov 20th 2008)

A paper in the Lancet, published by a team led by Paolo Macchiarini of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, described such an operation, carried out in June on a patient called Claudia Castillo, whose left bronchus had been damaged by tuberculosis. The reason for the publicity, though, was not that this was the first bronchial transplant, but rather that it involved some serious bioengineering using stem cells.

Stem cells exist to replenish the supply of other cells. When a stem cell divides, it sometimes produces daughters that are different from one another. One is another stem cell. The other is the first step on the path to a particular sort of tissue such as the lining of a windpipe. The idea behind stem-cell bioengineering is to use the recipient’s own stem cells to create an artificial organ that will be recognised as part of the body by the recipient’s immune system, and thus not rejected. And this, in the case of Ms Castillo’s new bronchus, is what Dr Macchiarini and his team have done.

Funny thing about the War on Science, W comes out of it looking like the conquistadors to the Death Lobby's Incans.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 20, 2008 1:03 PM