Major US Advancements On Stem Cell Research

HopeTracker| The US Circuit of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued a permanent stay of the preliminary injunction issued on Sept. 10 against further stem cell research in the US that utilizes human embryos. The case will be fast-tracked through the appeals court with the government’s first brief due on Oct. 14.

Both the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research and the Genetics Policy Institute moved for permission to file amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) briefs in the lower court case on Wednesday.

GPI’s 32-page brief focused narrowly on the meaning of the word “research,” which is central to the debate about the applicability of the congressional appropriations rider, the Dickey-Wicker amendment, to stem cell research. via MIT The Tech

Simultaneously, researchers have announced a major advancement in stem cell research, one that doesn’t involve using human embryos.

A team of researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston published a series of experiments Thursday showing that synthetic biological signals can quickly reprogram ordinary skin cells into entities that appear virtually identical to embryonic stem cells. Moreover, the same strategy can then turn those cells into ones that could be used for transplants. via Washington Post