[ExI] [Exl] Stem cell breakthrough

[Henry Rivera]

In a PBS interview with one of the lead researchers for this study, he
describes the process as serial delivery of stem cells. I get the
impression that this too is a novel approach.

"If you look at any vital organs, your heart, your lungs, your liver, your
kidneys, you only need about 20 percent function in any of those organs to
survive. So when people go into kidney failure or lung failure, it's
because they are down to less than 20 percent function. They may be down to
10 percent.

So rather than building an entire new kidney or entire new lung, which is a
noble cause, and I think will be achieved some day, why not start with
delivering cells to those injured tissues, those diseased tissues, and see
if you can boost the function back up over 25 percent? And now you can live
a normal, healthy life.

So, I think the first applications will be not growing new tissue, but
boosting existing tissue function."

From:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/researchers-make-stem-cell-discovery-by-studying-tissue-stress-and-repair/

-Henry


On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 19:17, *William Flynn Wallace* <foozler83 at
gmail.com> wrote:

>What stem cells will eventually do is to replace defective cells in our
>organs so we can keep them and not have to replace them.  We will have an
>all new heart that was created inside our own body, not grown in a lab. As
>for cancers, we will create bacteria and viruses in the lab that will go
>everywhere our blood goes and kill cancer cells.  (That is, until we can
>redesign the immune system to do this automatically.)  bill


On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:27 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com
<http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat>> wrote:

>* You could replace organs if you knew how to make them, which may rule out
*>* replacing the brain...at first, anyway.
*>>* And then there are issues which do not narrow down to single organ
*>* replacement, such as cancer or most diseases.
*>>* But the big issue is going to be making it affordable.  Health care
*>* already has major problems there.
*>* On Jan 30, 2014 3:10 AM, "Henry Rivera" <hrivera at
alumni.virginia.edu
<http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat>>
*>* wrote:
*>>>* Have you heard about
this?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25917270
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25917270>
*>>>>* If we are able to mass produce stem cells, and there is no religious
*>>* opposition about embryos at play, shouldn't we be able to replace/refresh
*>>* all our organs including our skin indefinitely? Is this the soon-to-come
*>>* viable route to longevity if not immortality?! Someone here has thought
*>>* about this before, I'm sure. School me please. Thanks in advance.
*>>* -Henry
*>>
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