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Scientists produce stem cells for 10 diseases
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 08 - 08 - 2008


Harvard scientists say they have created
stems cells for 10 genetic disorders, which will allow
researchers to watch the diseases develop in a lab dish, according to AP.
This early step, using a new technique, could help speed
up efforts to find treatments for some of the most
confounding ailments, the scientists said.
The new work was reported online Thursday in the journal
Cell, and the researchers said they plan to make the cell
lines readily available to other scientists.
Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem
Cell Institute used ordinary skin cells and bone marrow
from people with a variety of diseases, including
Parkinson's, Huntington's and Down syndrome to produce the
stem cells.
The new cells will allow researchers to «watch the
disease progress in a dish, that is, to watch what goes
right or wrong,» Doug Melton, co-director of the
institute, said during a teleconference.
«I think we'll see in years ahead that this opens the
door to a new way to treating degenerative diseases,» he
said.
The new technique reprograms cells, giving them the
chameleon-like qualities of embryonic stem cells, which can
morph into all kinds of tissue, such as heart, nerve and
brain. As with embryonic stem cells, the hope is to speed
medical research.
Research teams in Wisconsin and Japan were the first to
report last November that they had reprogrammed skin cells,
and that the cells had behaved like stem cells in a series
of lab tests. Just last week, another Harvard team of
scientists said they reprogrammed skin cells from two
elderly patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and
grew them into nerve cells.
Melton said the new disease-specific cell lines
«represent a collection of degenerative diseases for which
there are no good treatments and, more importantly, no good
animal models for the most part in studying them.»
A new laboratory has been created to serve as a repository
for the cells, and to distribute them to other scientists
researching the diseases, Melton said.
«The hope is that this will accelerate research and it
will create a climate of openness,» said Daley.
He expects stem cell lines to be developed for many more
diseases, noting, «this is just the first wave of
diseases.» Other diseases for which they created stem
cells are Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes; two types of
muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease and a rare genetic
disorder known as the «bubble boy disease.»
Daley stressed that the reprogrammed cells won't eliminate
the need or value of studying embryonic stem cells.
«At least for the foreseeable future, and I would argue
forever, they are going to be extremely valuable tools,»
he said.
The reprogramming work was funded by the National
Institutes of Health and private contributions to the
Harvard Stem Cell Institute.


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