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Published online 11 June 2008 | Nature 453, 828-829 (2008) | doi:10.1038/453828a
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Egg shortage hits race to clone human stem cells
Researchers back bid to pay donors.
US stem-cell researchers are calling for changes to state laws that prohibit compensating women who donate eggs for research. The laws, in leading stem-cell research states such as Massachusetts and California, are crippling the promising field of ‘therapeutic cloning’ that could produce useful embryonic stem-cell lines for studying various human diseases, they say.
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Egg shortage? Are you kidding?? Are we in the egg-free iPS era now??? Ask Yamanaka about the story of "turning lead into gold" and the seismic shift in stem cell research! Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
Eggan stated in 2006 on a Commentary about the "ground-breaking" research on iPS that "Takahashi and Yamanaka have successfully reprogrammed terminally differentiated cells to a pluripotent state" (Rodolfa and Eggan, Cell 126: 652, 2006). If that statement is true, why does he need any more eggs???????? Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
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Opps! Sorry for the above contentless comment. I was thinking of why there was no new publications on iPS after iPS research became a national project in Japan when my fingers acted faster than my brain.------Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
Why would someone spend so much money to buy eggs when "New sources of sex cells" will be generated within 5-15 years (Nature 452, 913, 2008). Now even a “man†can have a pregnancy (Nature 452, 913, 2008), why should we still looking just at women for the contribution of eggs? Please read more at http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/TW2008V3N1A9_iPS_AprilFool.htm or http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/TW2008V3N1A9_iPS_AprilFool.pdf --------------Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
Back to eggs--Should science progress with a "regress"?????I found stem cell research "interesting"!!! First we had someone faking a discovery and winning a global respect and then world-wide condemnation. Then we had another "seismic shift" that bring stem cell research into a "new era" with a Nobel Prize in sight. Now we are back to the same cry for eggs. What is going on here?????? Can the "experts" be modest to read the articles by Liu and figure out what is really wrong with the stem cell research/cloning games?????Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
No more eggs??? The White House will not be pleased with this approach!!!!Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
Can iPS experts teach egg-hunters????? MIT and Harvard are so close to each other. Why not Jaenisch take a very short walk from MIT to Harvard and teach those egg-hunters the "proved" principle of egg-free therapeutic cloning that has even shown some "medical" effects????? Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
You cannot have BOTH!!! In my view, either Eggan should retract his conclusion that "Takahashi and Yamanaka have successfully reprogrammed terminally differentiated cells to a pluripotent state" (Rodolfa and Eggan, Cell 126: 652, 2006) or he should not be permitted for asking egg again. You cannot play a double-talk and get the benefits from both sides!!!!Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
Cross-talk between iPS cells and eggs within the same insititute, please!!! Before asking for more eggs, can Eggan talk with the colleagues in the same institute (The Harvard Stem Cell Institute) to see if he can learn the tricks of reprogramming "differentiated adult cells" back to undifferentiated "embryonic" stem cells and, if lucky, all the way to some eggs?---- Here are a few publications on the iPS cells from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute that may be useful: 1. Park et al. from the Daley group. "Reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotency with defined factors" (Nature 451: 141-146, 2007) 2. Maheradi et al. from the Hochedlinger group. "Directly reprogrammed fibroblasts show global epigenetic remodeling and widespread tissue contribution" (Cell Stem Cell 1: 55-70, 2007) 3. Stadtfeld et al. from the Hochedlinger group. "Defining molecular cornerstones during fibroblast to iPS cell reprogramming in mouse" (Cell Stem Cell 1: 55-70, 2007) ------------ Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)
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Women should NOT be asked to sell their bodies for their ova. They should not be made into prostitutes so some immoral scientist can kill embryos. Scientists should move on from the dark ages of ESCR and rejections and tumors into the fertile ground of more effective and efficient and the greater potential of iPS research. The scientists could even work to help people by engaging in adult stem cell research.
iPS research does not mean we don't need eggs anymore (there was a comment in Cell Stem Cell Oct, 2007 "New advances in iPS cell research do not obviate the need for human embryonic stem cells." to this effect) and the White House should not have been involved in the decision in the first place.
DOUBLE-TALK!!!How could one justify saying at one hand that egg-free iPS cells are INDISTINGUSHIBALE from ES cells and can be used for PATIENT-SPECIFIC therapy (at least "proven-in-principle") and then on ther other hand saying that egg-required ES cells are still important for the same purpose????Can political "comfort" aimed at reducing the budget tension be used for grant assessment????? Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)