ACT unveils embryonic stem cell breakthrough

There's no question that the big research news of the week came from Advanced Cell Technology. A team of scientists at the company say they were able to extract embryonic stem cells from early-stage, eight-cell embryos and create new stem cell lines that could be used in new research work. Their work is being published in Nature. As luck would have it, I was doing some research of my own on embryonic stem cells and reached Advanced Cell Technology CEO William Caldwell, IV the day before yesterday's big news release. The company is clearly hoping that the research breakthrough will give the Bush administration cause to start funding stem cell lines if they can demonstrate an ability to develop new lines without harming the embryo.

Scientists at the biotech company say they can use a cell withdrawn from an eight-cell embryo for testing purposes to create the new stem cell lines. Taking 18 embryos donated by fertility patients, the researchers took as many cells as they could from each, destroying some in the process. They gathered a total of 91 embryonic stem cells and were able to coax 53 to start dividing. Two of the cells created robust colonies of new stem cells. Researchers noted that the process was inefficient, adding that if they limited themselves to one test cell from each embryo the process would become even more difficult. Early signs from the Bush administration weren't encouraging. "Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises serious ethical concerns," said a White House statement. "The President is hopeful that with time scientists can find ways of deriving cells like those now derived from human embryos but without the need for using embryos."

- here's the article from The Washington Post