Word: stemness
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...there's any hope for a cure for Zucker and more than 1 million other Americans with Type 1 diabetes, the most debilitating form of the disease, it may lie in a revolutionary new field of research based on manipulating human embryonic stem cells. These building blocks of life, when isolated in a microscopic cluster of cells, can morph into any kind of tissue. (So-called adult stem cells, which can be harvested without sacrificing embryos, can turn into only a few tissue types.) One day, scientists hope, the entire genetic makeup of a patient like Zucker could be transferred...
...some religious groups believe the clumps of 100 to 200 cells from which embryonic stem cells are taken represent a potential human life as worthy of protection as any child's. Three years ago, President George W. Bush, under pressure from both sides, adopted a compromise that ended up choking off most federal research funds to the field. He said at the time that although the research offered "great promise" in saving lives, it could lead to "growing human beings for spare body parts...
Today a brush-fire challenge to Bush's stem-cell policy is spreading across the U.S., fueled by the frustration of such families as Zucker's who have allied themselves with patient activists for other diseases, major universities, several state legislatures and members of Congress. Last month 206 U.S. Representatives wrote to the President, calling on him to fund stem-cell research on spare embryos from a pool of some 400,000 stored in the freezers of in vitro fertilization clinics. These embryos, only a few days old and smaller than the head of a pin, will probably be discarded...
...Bush White House is unlikely to make any sudden moves before the November election. But in a startling rebellion against the federal biomedical establishment, several states are moving forcefully into the vacuum. California and New Jersey have passed laws specifically authorizing the cloning of human eggs to create stem cells (so-called therapeutic cloning), and the legislatures of seven other states, including Illinois and New York, are considering similar bills. This week New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, in a nod to the state's pharmaceutical industry, will inaugurate a $50 million stem-cell institute to be funded with state...
...March, Thaksin pledged an economic aid package worth $300 million for the south. But financial assistance has failed to stem the violence. Local Muslims say the quickest way to ease their resentment would be to lift martial law, which Thaksin imposed on most of the south after Islamic gunmen attacked an army depot there in January, killing four soldiers and stealing some 400 rifles. For now, though, the Prime Minister thinks it's safer to bet on the healing power of rice and rhetoric...