June 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While research lobbyists pressure governments for access to embryos, more work is being done obtaining stem cells from ethical sources proving that embryonic stem cells are a dead end. This has not been lost on private investors who are now pouring money into adult stem cell research.
In April, at a meeting of the Institute of Physics, Professor Josef Käs and Dr Jochen Guck from the University of Leipzig announced that they had discovered a procedure that can extract and isolate embryo-quality stem cells from adult blood for the first time. In the past, researchers were able to identify adult stem cells from blood by marking them with dye, but this reduced their value for medical uses. The Leipzig group has found a way to identify them from a physical trait – their elasticity, that is characteristic only of stem cells.
Stem cells, because they are not yet differentiated, or specialized, to be specific types of tissue, have not developed a rigid ‘cytoskeleton’ or membrane and are therefore identifiable by being more ‘stretchy’ than other cells in the blood. Käs and Guck’s machine uses a powerful beam of infrared laser light to stretch and measure cells one by one.
This is precisely the kind of breakthrough that has private investors interested in adult stem cells. An example is Osiris Therapeutics Inc., a leader in adult stem cell therapy for tissue regeneration, which has announced it expects to have adult stem cell-based therapies on the market by late 2007. One Osiris project is working to develop a method of combating tissue rejection for leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow transplants.
Investors, excited about the possibilities of adult stem cells – stories about which seem to break into the news almost daily – have raised more than double the expected research funds after the Food and Drug Administration approved the research.
Two other Osiris projects are seeking to replace knee tissue after sports or repetitive motion injuries to prevent the onset of arthritis; and to replace the tissue damaged by heart attack.
This enthusiasm for adult stem cell research on the part of private investors will doubtless prod the more ideologically-driven research lobby to push harder for public funding for embryo research. However, businesses, motivated as they are by the need to pursue what works, have set the tone for the future.
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
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