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Study Finds Blood Cells Can Be Reprogrammed to Act as Embryonic Stem Cells

(WASHINGTON, April 20, 2009) - In a recent study, U.S. researchers have reprogrammed cells found in circulating blood into cells that are molecularly and functionally indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, a revolutionary achievement that provides a readily accessible source of stem cells and an alternative to harvesting embryonic stem cells. The findings were prepublished online in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Embryonic stem cells have long been coveted for their potential to treat a multitude of diseases as a result of their unique properties of nearly indefinite self-renewal and pluripotency (the ability to develop into any type of cell in the body), but their use has been the subject of political controversy.

“Our findings provide the first proof that cells from human blood can morph into stem cells,” said senior study author George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Children’s Hospital, Boston. “Making pluripotent stem cells from blood, which is one of the easiest tissues to obtain, provides an easy strategy for generating patient-specific stem cells that are valuable research tools and may one day be used to treat a number of diseases.”

(Full Story Here)

What this story means is that, in spite of B.O.'s big whoop dee doo about letting science do it's job when he funded embryonic stem cell research a few weeks ago, there is really no excuse to continue to use cells "harvested" from murdered babies, aka aborted embryos. It's bad morally and it's bad medicine and now we know it's just piss poor science to boot.

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