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Cosmic Rays Detected Deep Underground Reveal Secrets Of Upper AtmosphereCosmic-rays detected half a mile underground in a disused U.S. iron-mine can be used to detect major weather events occurring 20 miles up in the Earth's upper atmosphere, a new study has revealed. Scientists were surprised to see intermittent and sudden increases in the levels of muons during the winter months. These jumps in the data occurred over just a few days. On investigation, they found these changes coincided with very sudden increases in the temperature of the stratosphere (by up to 40 deg C in places).Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Hope For Rabies Eradication Strategy In AfricaMost of the rabies virus circulating in dogs in western and central Africa comes from a common ancestor introduced to the continent around 200 years ago, probably by European colonialists. Scientists report that within this common ancestry there are distinct subspecies at country level and that there is only limited movement of virus between localities. These factors mean that, if neighboring countries collaborate, a progressive strategy to eliminate rabies from this area of sub-Saharan Africa is possible.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Potential New Antibody Treatment For Autoimmune DiseasesScientists have discovered an abnormality in a patient's immune system that may lead to safer therapies for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and colitis, as well as potential new ways to treat transplant rejection.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am The Un-favorite Child: Adults Who Perceived Parents As Being Lenient With Siblings Still Happy Later In LifeAdults who recall their parents being more lenient with siblings can still grow to be generally happy, thanks to personality type and life experience, says a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Design Of Microlasers Could Be Improved, Based On New Theoretical AnalysisTiny disk-shaped lasers as small as a speck of dust could one day beam information through optical computers. Unfortunately, a perfect disk will spray light out, not as a beam, but in all directions. New theoretical results explain how adding a small notch to the disk edge provides a single outlet for laser light to stream out.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Europe’s Aquatic Birds Will Seek New Nesting Sites In Face Of Global WarmingScientists have produced a break-down of 152 aquatic bird species with a similar level of distribution throughout continental Europe. The study shows that environmental energy, in other words temperature, is the driving factor behind birds’ mobility, above all in relation to global warming.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Infidelity Produces Faster Sperm, Swedish Fish Study FindsUntil now, it has been difficult to prove that fast-swimming sperm have an advantage when it comes to fertilizing an egg. But now Swedish researchers can demonstrate that unfaithful females of the cichlid fish species influence the males' sperm.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm New Test Speeds Triclosan Detection In WaterA new test for detecting triclosan should expedite environmental monitoring of the antibacterial agent in rivers, wells and other water sources, according to new studies.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Two Nonsurgical Treatments For Reflux Disease ComparedTwo nonsurgical, nonpharmacological treatments for gastroesophageal reflux disease both appear effective in reducing medication use and improving voice and swallowing symptoms, according to a new report. One type of therapy also appears effective for reducing heartburn and cough, whereas the other may be associated with a reduction in regurgitation.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Apple Juice Can Delay Onset Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study SuggestsA growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm Texas board moves closer to new science standards (AP)AP - The State Board of Education moved a step closer to dropping a 20-year-old science curriculum requirement that critics say is used to undermine the theory of evolution.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:46 am Animal activists hail Indian court ruling on stray dogs (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 10:19 am Cautious Optimism for the First Embryonic Stem Cell Human Trial Approved by the FDA (Time.com)Time.com - A promising and perilous study could lead to new treatments for spinal cord injurySource: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 5:25 am Bolivia nationalizes Chaco oil company (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 2:31 am Study: Western forests dying at increasing rate (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Jan 2009 | 1:51 am Guam's Birds Gone: Can Forest Survive? (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 11:45 pm What Happens When Satellites Fall (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The recent trials of an out-of-control communications satellite and a defunct, leaky Soviet-era spacecraft toting its own nuclear reactor call up the question: What exactly happens when satellites die in space?Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 10:15 pm Europe's Sexy New Gravity Satellite
A sleek new European Space Agency satellite set to launch this year, perhaps as early as February, aims to map out the planet's gravitational field in unprecedented detail. The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, will gather data useful for research in oceanography, solid Earth physics and climate change. "ESA's gravity satellite will measure Earth's gravity from place to place around the globe to provide a uniform global picture," said GOCE project scientist Mark Drinkwater in a press release. "It will do this with a level of detail and accuracy never before achieved. This fundamental reference dataset will give access to new scientific insights into ocean circulation and its impact on climate, as well as into the structure of the interior of the Earth in critical locations such as earthquake and volcanic zones." What goes up must come down. That simple explanation of gravity serves us well in most cases, but at a certain level, it breaks down. For example, the strength of Earth's gravity actually varies by small amounts at different spots around the planet. GOCE will use ultrasensitive instruments called accelerometers to measure tiny variations in Earth's gravitational tug due to the planet's rotation, the positions of mountains and ocean trenches, and variations in the density of Earth's interior. Orbiting low at just 155 miles above the surface of the planet, GOCE will compile its precise 3-D map of Earth's gravitational field over a period of about 20 months. The information it gathers will also help scientists finally gauge accurate heights for major Earth features such as Mount Everest, for which today's best estimates vary by more than 16 feet. "Measuring our planet's peaks using a standardized reference will help us better understand the Earth," said Bente Lilja Bye, research director from the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority. "GOCE will result in an improved accuracy of the geoid and will facilitate the establishment of a unified global height system so that heights of the highest mountains in the world can be directly compared," she said. "Another benefit will be an improvement in our capabilities to predict the behavior of the Earth, and hence provide information needed to help mitigate disasters and economically damaging events."
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Image: ESA Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:39 pm Report: Upgrading FEMA flood maps would save lives (AP)AP - Nearly four years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, researchers called on the federal government to upgrade its flood maps, arguing that the effort could save lives as well as stem losses to properties and businesses.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:32 pm IPCC Chief Calls Out Obama for Weak Greenhouse Gas Goals
In an early conflict between the idea and the reality of Barack Obama's presidency, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chair Rajendra Pachauri has asked the president to get tougher on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. "I'd like him to suggest something akin to what the European Union set as a target," said Pachauri during a January 15 talk at the Worldwatch Institute, a sustainability think tank. "I think that really shows a level of seriousness in meeting this challenge, which is consistent with the position he's been taking." Obama has pledged to reduce U.S. fossil fuel emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The IPCC, however, says that global emissions must peak by 2015 in order to avoid catastrophic temperature increases. By 2020, the E.U. plans to reduce its own greenhouse gas pollution to 80 percent of 1990 levels. Though Obama's long-term emissions goals — 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 — are laudable, these may come too late to "roll back the specter of a warming planet," as he promised during Tuesday's inaugural address. "It's very important for the U.S. to lead," said Pachauri. "Otherwise we won't reach global stabilization targets." The video of Pachauri's talk can be seen here; his remarks come at approximately 30 and 55 minutes. Image: Dawn Endico See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:17 pm FDA OKs First Human Trials of Embryonic Stem Cells
The Federal Drug Administration has approved the first human trials of embryonic stem cells — a sign of a new, liberal attitude toward stem cell research, which was hamstrung by the Bush administration. Starting this summer, the biotech firm Geron will treat a small group of spinal-cord injury patients using neurons derived from stem cells, marking the first time embryonic stem cells will be tested in humans. The trial is designed to test the safety of the treatment, not how well it works. Nonetheless, it's a huge first step for the field. "It signals to me that we have the primary regulatory authorities on board for embryonic stem cells," said Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a $3 billion state initiative to support stem cell research. "That really is a tremendous piece of news." Under the Bush administration, stem cell research was slowed by an executive order, signed in August 2001, that (severely) restricted the types of stem cells and stem cell research that could be conducted. President Barack Obama is widely expected to lift Bush’s executive order, perhaps as soon as next week. Working in a handful of medical centers around the country, Geron will treat eight to 10 recent paraplegics, who can use their arms but not their legs. The patients will receive an injection of neurons to the site of the damage, followed by a short treatment of anti-rejection drugs. Previous animal studies suggest the new neurons will repair damaged neurons and secrete substances to help nerves function and grow. Amy Rick, president of Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a group of dozens of research institutions that support stem cell research, said the Geron trial is a milestone. "It's hugely significant in the sense that it's the first approval of a human embryonic stem cell trial," she said. "In this week of hope and change, it feels even better." While Geron scientists waited months for FDA approval of the stem cell treatment, they are reluctant to link the go-ahead directly to the inauguration of Obama. A Geron spokeswoman said that the company had no evidence of political influence aiding their application. “It’s just coincidental timing,” the spokeswoman said. Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman, echoed that the timing was coincidental. "We make science-based decisions and politics is not a factor," she said. But the new president surely didn't hurt matters. The chairman of Trounson's organization told the New York Times, "I think this approval is directly tied to the change in administration." The approval is expected to the first of several trials involving embryonic stem cells. A recent CAMR report found that nine companies, including Geron, were in the process of developing human embryonic stem cell treatments. Embryonic stem cells are like blank slates that can be transformed into different types of tissue. They've been hailed as the next big thing in medicine ever since University of Wisconsin scientist James Thomson showed their ability to regenerate in 1998. Since then, stem cells have been like a high school star turned NBA draft pick — talented and expensive but undisciplined and perhaps not quite ready for the glare of the big game. Like many biotechnology techniques, the lag between scientific discovery and clinical treatment can be decades. Still, the Regenerative Medicine Institute’s Trounson, who was a stem cell scientist in Australia before heading the California institute, said that experimental treatments are outpacing his expectations. "We're running an agency funding this work and I'm astounded at what's happening in this space,” he said. Trounson said there’s evidence in animal trials that stem cells are effective in treating ailments as varied as diabetes, Alzheimers, multiple scleorsis and macular degeneration. “It’s just fantastic,” Trounson said. "And I would expect some of these to enter clinical trials sooner, rather than later." His agency expects to fund up to a dozen scientists who think they can submit their stem cell work to the FDA for clinical trial approval within four years. From there, those so-called investigational new drugs will have to follow the path that Geron's treatment did. The company submitted its application early in 2008. It was then put on hold in May 2008 and kicked back to the company for further review. Seven months later, the company resubmitted the application and received approval Wednesday, the day after the inauguration. That said, Obama's political influence is likely to invigorate a field that — despite impressive state-level and private efforts — has been ham-strung by Federal regulation and the specter of increased government regulation. "With President Obama there, there will be a big change not only in government administration and the public sector, but I think it will encourage the pharmaceutical companies to be involved as well," Trounson said. Image: flickr/limowreck666 See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and project site, Inventing Green: the lost history of American clean tech; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:10 pm SLIDE SHOW: This Week's Top StoriesFrom spitting cobras to flying cars, join us for a visual tour of the week's biggest news.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 8:30 pm FDA Approves Test to Inject Embryonic Stem Cells into HumansGovernment approves the first study to use human embryonic stem cells injected into a human.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:39 pm FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells can treat people safely, a company involved in the controversial research on Friday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:32 pm Japan launches orbiter to probe greenhouse gases (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:16 pm BLOG: Stone Age Animal ArtThe earliest known art figurines include realistic bison and fox.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:30 pm Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic 'cooling'Scientists have solved the enigma of the Antarctic apparently getting cooler, while the rest of the world heats up. New research shows that while some parts of the frozen continent have been getting slightly colder over the last few decades, the average temperature across the continent has been rising for at least the last 50 years. In the remote and inaccessible West Antarctic region the new research, based on ground measurements and satellite data, show that the region has warmed rapidly, by 0.17C each decade since 1957. "We had no idea what was happening there," said Professor Eric Steig, at the University of Washington, Seattle, and who led the research published in Nature. This outweighs the cooling seen in East Antarctica, so that, overall, the continent has warmed by 0.12C each decade over the same period. This matches the warming of the southern hemisphere as a whole and removes the apparent contradiction. The issue, which had been highlighted by global warming sceptics, was an annoyance, said Steig, despite the science having been reasonably well understood. "But it has now been killed off," he said. Gareth Marshall, climatologist at British Antarctic Survey, commented: "This work allows us to look at the continent as a whole, which we have not been able to do before with confidence. It fills a big hole in the data in West Antarctica – it is the final piece in the jigsaw." The rapid warming now revealed in the west concerns some scientists. The new analysis suggests the West Antarctic ice sheet, like that in Greenland, is precariously balanced, said Professor Barry Brook at the University of Adelaide. "Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few metres of sea level rise this century, with disastrous consequences," he said. It was well known that a small part of Antarctic was warming – the peninsula that protrudes northwards towards South America and is the site of many research stations. But researchers knew that East Antarctica had cooled a little in recent decades and thought that might be the case across the continent's great mountain range in West Antarctica. Temperature records have been taken on the ground since the first weather stations were built in 1957. But all but two of the 42 are very close to the coast and therefore give no information on the vast interior of the continent. Satellite data, in contrast, can take the temperature of the entire region by measuring the intensity of the infrared radiation reflected from the snow pack and has been available since 1980. Steig's team found the mathematical relationships between the weather station data and satellite data, tested them, and then used them to go back in time to estimate temperatures across the continent back to 1957. Their statistical model has now been validated by an ice core drilled into the Rutford ice stream in West Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey, from which temperature records can be measured. That independent work also came up with a warming of 0.17C a decade for the region, and stretched the trend back to at least 1930. The cooling seen in East Antarctica is caused in part by the ozone hole that opens each year in the atmosphere. The ozone hole causes an increase in westerly winds which, by a complex interaction of wind, sea and ice, results in lower temperatures in the east. Emissions of ozone-destroying gases have now almost been eliminated and the hole is expected to recover by mid-century. When that happens, there will be a rapid catch up of temperatures, says Marshall. The 2007 report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the impact of greenhouse gas emissions could be seen on every continent bar Antarctica. The new work, along with another recent study, now clearly shows that the rising temperature of the continent cannot be explained by natural climate variation alone. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:00 pm Earth WatchWhy harming nature can increase human diseaseSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:22 pm Warming Doubles Tree Deaths in Western U.S.Climate change is having a dramatic impact on America's old-growth forests.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:00 pm Teleportation Milestone AchievedScientists have come a bit closer to achieving the "Star Trek" feat of teleportation.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:35 pm Scientists solve `The Italian Job' cliffhanger (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:17 pm Squid Teeth Inspire Handy MaterialThe secret to a strong, lightweight new material could be in a squid's powerful grip.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm How Cobras Spit With Perfect AccuracyCobra venom is shout out in a spray rather than a stream.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:14 pm Free-Range Chicken More Disease-Prone?Are caged chickens healthier than their free-range pals?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:00 pm Why Did Humans Migrate to the Americas?Human migration is much more complex than we might think, genetic evidence suggests.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:14 pm A new dawn?Gorilla rangers hope rebel leader's arrest brings peaceSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:11 pm Green light for US stem cell workUS regulators have cleared the way for the world's first study on human embryonic stem cell therapy.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:10 pm Guam's Birds Gone: Can Forest Survive?Can forests that have lost all of their birds still function normally?Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:10 pm Mega-Quakes Prime Volcanoes for EruptionLarge earthquakes can trigger volcanic eruptions for up to a year afterward.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm Instant Messages Reveal Relationship HealthInstant messages can reveal whether your relationship is healthy or on the rocks.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 1:09 pm Jonathan Jones: Religion and science have always coexistedIt's the old story - you wait hours for an atheist bus and then 26 of them come along at once. Every bus trundling along London's Euston Road at the moment seems to have the advice offered by Richard Dawkins and the Humanists on its side, that God probably does not exist so you should enjoy your life. I can imagine that loads of religious people, charmed by the none-too-subtle implication that they are miserable swine, are converted by this poster into radical secularists. I, on the other hand, find my atheism seriously challenged by the anxiety that I may be just as self-regarding as the promoters of this poster. Apart from anything else, the Dawkins view encourages a caricature of the history of science. It dramatises a clash between scientific reason and religious superstition that is supposedly as intense today as it was in the age of Galileo. But this is a schoolchild's version of the history of science. It is simplistic and inaccurate to imagine that scientific discovery has ever been either the fruit, or the seed, of pure reason. Science, like art, is imaginative. And the imaginative pictures of the universe created by the great scientists have rarely been free of ideas that in the nouveau atheist view are irrational. Galileo is in the news - it's his 400th anniversary, so naturally scientific historians in Florence want to exhume his body and examine its DNA. In the modern imagination, Galileo was a man of reason who defied the Catholic church with his courageous defence of Copernicus's sun-centred solar system. But was he a modern secularist? To believe this you have to ignore the fact that he was influenced by Renaissance hermeticism, an occult philosophy in which the sun is a source of spiritual vitality - in other words, his heliocentrism is partly mystical. Galileo was tragic, ultimately capitulating to the church to avoid the fate of his contemporary Giordano Bruno, burned alive for his beliefs. Bruno's statue stands on the site of his execution on Rome's Campo dei Fiori. But Bruno was not martyred for the defence of pure science: he promoted magic, as well as hypothesising multiple universes. Galileo and Bruno were makers of modern science who were - as we all are - shaped by the assumptions of their age. The list goes on. Isaac Newton was fascinated by alchemy. The makers of modern natural history include not just Darwin, but eccentrics like Buckland and Owen who tried to reconcile fossils with religious faith. Richard Owen was a religious bigot, but he named the dinosaurs and founded the Natural History Museum. And Einstein said that God does not play dice. The mind does not think in a vacuum, and science never has existed in a God-free zone. Reason will probably always have to live with unreason. Now enjoy impurity. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:31 pm Ian Gibson: Science is the key to economic recoveryScience, innovation and technology will have a critical role to play in our recovery from the current economic crisis. Rather than cutting public spending in these areas, we should be investing more. Science should be at the very heart of efforts to boost the economy. We should be moving on from the "Innovation Nation" white paper, which has some very good proposals to reward innovation, not just within government but for the country as a whole. Proposals to have an innovation procurement plan in every government department have belatedly been introduced, although I still have concerns that they will be modelled on the Ministry of Defence's procurement plan. The MOD has on numerous occasions failed to save money and reward innovation, from the temperamental SA80 rifle to the debacle over Chinook helicopters. Sound procurement is essential to investment as it will be pointless injecting more money if it is not spent effectively. Science minister Lord Drayson's plan to invest £250m to create PhD training centres, the announcement of easier grants for small businesses and improved links between higher education institutions and industry – all these initiatives are welcome as they will help us tackle the challenges we will face in the future. It is just a shame that it has taken 11 years of a Labour government for these proposals to be introduced. We should be using these proposals as a stepping stone to greater innovation in public policy. Increasing research and development further in medicine and pharmaceuticals could save the NHS billions with the UK being able to develop more innovative and cost-effective treatments. Further research and development funding should be invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency as we face the threat of Russia turning off its pipes to the west. One of our biggest challenges is to become energy independent. The new wave of nuclear power plants will help to keep the lights on but we should be moving forward from this. We should be tackling the problem of the unpopularity of science, technology and mathematics in the classroom. We should make more funds available to make teaching more innovative and engaging to students, from increasing practical work in science lessons to introducing pupils to the practical applications of mathematics. In higher education, while we should continue to invest in research, this should not be at the expense of the student. If we lift the tuition fee cap – allowing universities to raise their fees – we could well end up with a deficit of knowledge and capable people to transform our country. If we want a successful model of innovation in an economy, we should look at what happened in Finland in the 1990s. After the Finns lost their main trading outlet with the collapse of the Soviet Union, they invested heavily in innovation networks and R&D, transforming the country into a world leader in telecommunications with the likes of Nokia and creating the first true knowledge-based economy. The recession should be seen an opportunity to put in place policies that can make our society more secure, economically and environmentally, for us and our children. In the US, President Barack Obama has promised to invest massively in infrastructure, science and technology, declaring in his inauguration speech that "we will restore science to its rightful place". His election could also mark a turning point in the UK if we choose to take the initiative and act now. Dr Ian Gibson is MP for Norwich North, a biologist and former chair of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 11:52 am US embryonic stem cell trial gets go-aheadUp to 10 people with spinal cord injuries will this summer become the first in the world to be given a treatment based on embryonic stem cells, after US regulators approved a long-awaited but controversial trial. The technique, which has the potential to heal paralysed patients by regenerating damaged spinal nerves, has attracted vocal objections from religious and pro-life organisations because the cells are taken from surplus embryos at IVF clinics. The ruling from the US Food and Drug Administration gives Geron, a California-based biotech company, permission to inject eight to 10 patients with cells derived from embryonic stem cells. The patients will be given a single injection within two weeks of sustaining an injury that has paralysed them from the chest down. The technique will not be tested on patients who have been paralysed for a long period because of their injuries. The company first applied for permission to conduct the trial last March, but the FDA refused and requested more data on the treatment. The decision comes as President Barack Obama prepares to lift restrictions on the public funding of embryonic stem cell research imposed by the Bush administration. The change in presidency is not thought to have played a role in the FDA's decision, because Geron's work is privately funded. Thomas Okarma of Geron said in a statement: "This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics, one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of healthy replacement cells." Embryonic stem cells can grow into any tissue in the body, giving scientists hope that in the future they could be used to replace worn-out or damaged body parts. Other stem cells, called adult stem cells, have been tested before in people to treat heart problems. Animal studies suggest that once the cells have been injected, they will grow and steadily repair damaged nerves in the patients' spines. The study, known as a phase I trial, will primarily look at the safety of injecting the cells into patients. If successful, the treatment will still need to go through further trials, which could take many years to complete. The landmark trial will be watched keenly by other biotech companies that are developing stem cell therapies for a range of conditions from Parkinson's disease to Alzheimer's. If any patient in the trial suffers ill effects from the treatment, it will be a serious blow for a technology that many scientists believe is poised to usher in a new era of medicine. Evan Snyder, a stem cell researcher at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in California, said scientists in the field will focus chiefly on the study's findings about safety. "The one hope that everybody has is that nothing bad happens," he said. Peter Coffey, who leads a stem cell project to cure blindness at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London, said: "This is bloody good news ... I would guess, and I hope, that this will encourage business to invest in stem cell therapies, especially if Geron's share price has gone up after this morning's announcement. "This strengthens our recent call for regulators in the UK to help provide a clear process for researchers to take this forward. It's also exciting for me because it brings our own moves towards clinical trials with embryonic stem cells for age-related macular degeneration a step forward." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 11:37 am
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