Stem cells from unharmed embryos
The new method removes a single cell from the embryo to generate a line of stem cells. The embryo results undamaged and develops normally.
“These are the first hES cells created without destroying embryos,” says Robert Lanza, Scientific Director Advanced Cell Technology, the company from Worcester, Massachusetts.
The hope now is that President George W. Bush will lift the heavy restrictions on the research funded by the federal government that harmed the hESC research in 2001 because of his own opposition to embryo research.
“It is here and now, and increases the number of stem cells available,” said Lanza, Bush wants immediate approval for the new ethics cell lines with the help of ACT. Since Bush’s suppression in 2001, only 22 cell lines were made available in the United States by researchers funded by the government, but most are of poor quality. “We hope that the President will do what is necessary,” said Lanza.
The new and promising approach to generate stem cell lines is now available in the journal Cell Stem Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.xtem.2007.12013). In this article Lanza and his colleagues describe how they achieved four new lines of hES cells blastomeres - single undifferentiated cells, which are very early embryos.