Embrionic Stem Cells Cure Blindness

[Twin Fist]

just kidding, once again, it was adult stem cells that worked. To date, embrionic stem cells have produced nothing but tumors....

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25550134-2702,00.html

THREE Australians have had their sight restored thanks to their own stem cells and ordinary contact lenses.

Although the novel technique was used to reverse blinding corneal disease, it promises to be a quick, painless and cheap treatment for other visual disorders. It may even be useful for repairing damaged skin, the researchers reported today in the journal Transplantation.

The team leader, UNSW stem cell scientist Nick Di Girolamo said: “We're quietly excited. We don't know yet if (the correction) will remain stable, but if it does it's a wonderful technique”.

According to team member Stephanie Watson - an opthalmic surgeon with Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital - two of the three patients were legally blind in the treated eye; they can now read big letters on the eye chart. The third could read the top few rows of the chart but is now able to pass the vision test for a driving license.

 

[Grenadier]

just kidding, once again, it was adult stem cells that worked. To date, embrionic stem cells have produced nothing but tumors....

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25550134-2702,00.html

If the report is genuine, then that's even more encouraging for the adult stem cell research world.

So far, it's the adult human stem cell research that has yielded the most results. Eventually, people will realize, that former President George W. Bush was dead-on in terms of strongly supporting adult stem cell research.

As for the embryonic stem cell comment, that's rather irrelevant, since nobody has been able to produce viable human embryonic stem cells without piggybacking them onto mouse cells (rendering them unusable). Human embryonic stem cells are so fragile, that they can't survive ex-vivo.

The only one who made claims to having done so was an embezzler by the name of Hwang Woo Suk, now the national disgrace to the Republic of Korea.

 

[CoryKS]

Great news if true. I'm crossing my fingers that this isn't another case of a hyperbolic journalist who didn't understand what the geek in the lab coat was saying.