Another Medical Science Breakthrough -- And It Uses Adult Stem Cells

Here's news of yet another medical science breakthrough in which nobody is hurt, killed, or morally stained -- because the technique involved uses adult stem cells and not cells from a human embryo.

Roger Highfield, Science Editor for the Telegraph, reports on this significant advance that could substantially help researchers discover treatments for Parkinson’s and numerous other dreaded diseases.

...For the first time a research team has managed to take human skin cells from a patient with a genetic condition and transform them into nerve cells. It means they will now be able to create limitless numbers of the diseased cells to help them carry out research in the hope of finding a way to treat the illness.

The research has been carried out by an American team. They took skin cells from two elderly patients with motor neuron disease and turned them into nerve cells so they could study the cause of their nerve degeneration. The cells can now be used to test drugs to treat the condition.

But scientists also hope if they can find a way of altering the cell to make it healthy they will be able to grow a patient’s cells and tissue, free of disease, to transplant back into their body and fight the condition. Research teams would theoretically be able to use the technique to develop treatments for a range of genetic conditions.

The advance is published in the journal Science by a team led by Prof Kevin Eggan of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prof Eggan said. “Now we can make limitless supplies of the cells that die in this awful disease.”...

Here's the rest of the story.

Labour Party Loses a Sure Thing; Anti-Life Legislation a Key Issue in the Contest

In a most interesting (and hopeful) development, one of the Labour Party's "safest seats" was just lost in a by-election to John Mason, an accountant/councilor who represents the Scottish National Party, in a contest where Parliament's atrocious embryo experimentation bill was a major issue.

Mason, a member of Easterhouse Baptist Church who describes his faith as being very important to him, opposes abortion on demand and so-called “social abortion” and is “extremely uncomfortable” with the unnatural and lethal experimentation to be performed on human embryos if Parliament's bill holds up.

The Christian Institute reports, "The Glasgow East constituency – which was one of Labour’s safest seats in the UK – has large numbers of Roman Catholics. Ahead of the vote, Roman Catholic Bishops strongly criticised the Government’s embryos Bill as 'monstrous' and a violation of 'moral law'. The embryos Bill was not the only issue during the by-election, but it played a significant role in the campaign."

FRC's Latest Review of Adult Stem Cell Successes

It takes a while to scan through -- but it's well worth your time.

I'm talking about the Family Research Council's terrific review of adult stem cell success stories. This is their third such report (boy, these guys are invaluable, aren't they?) and this review, though just covering adult stem cell success stories from this year to date, is their biggest yet.

From Northwestern University's Dr. Richard Burt's work with autoimmune disorders, to heart tissue regeneration, breast reconstruction, leukemia, Parkinson's Disease, cerebral palsy, vision restoration, sickle cell disease, and many more, the advances in medical science which utilize adult stem cells are not providing tremendous hopes for the future, they're helping people in many marvelous ways right now!

I think you'll find it very encouraging reading. Plus, it's a great resource to remember when addressing your political representatives, local hospitals and letters to the editor columns about science that, unlike embryonic stem cell research, is working wonders and doesn't kill anyone.

(H/T: A Matthew Eppinette post on Americans United for Life Blog.)

Catholic Bishops Move Against Embryonic Stem Cell Experimentation

In its first statement devoted exclusively to the issue of embryonic stem cell research, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) last week firmly stated the following:

“It now seems undeniable that once we cross the fundamental moral line that prevents us from treating any fellow human being as a mere object of research, there is no stopping point. The only moral stance that affirms the human dignity of all of us is to reject that first step down this path.”

The USCCB urges all Catholics—and others of good will—to join them in reaffirming that “the killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act.”

The statement—overwhelmingly approved by at vote of 191 to 1—is the first of two documents to be released by the USCCB. The second document will be addressed to engaged and married couples in the Catholic Church, educating them on reproductive technologies and the link to embryonic stem cell research...

The entirety of Mailee Smith's report at the Americans United for Life Blog can be found right here.

New Adult Stem Cell Research Provides Hope in Fight Against Parkinson's and Other Diseases of Old Age

Bio-engineers at California University have presented evidence that "old" stem cells are still able to perform regenerative functions if they receive appropriate chemical signals. This builds on earlier findings that when adult stem cells derived from "old" tissue are placed in an environment of young blood, the stem cells behave as if they are young again as well.

Because the findings bear on adult stem cells in existing tissue, this approach to rejuvenating degenerating muscle, bypasses medico-ethical complications associated with tissues from embryonic stem cells.

"We are one step closer to having a point of intervention where we can rejuvenate the body's own stem cells so we don't have to suffer from some of the debilitating diseases associated with ageing," said the study's co-author, Morgan Carlson.

The findings of the study were published Sunday in an advanced online issue of the journal Nature.

Meanwhile, in Australia, scientists have discovered that stem cells found in the back of a patient's nose can produce dopamine, the chemical which is missing in people with Parkinson's disease, the affliction endured by such people as Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox.

Parkinson's disease occurs when the brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine stop working. Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot function, leading to muscle problems.

Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland harvested adult stem cells from the noses of Parkinson's disease patients. They found that once the nose cells were cultured and infused into animals with Parkinson's disease, the cells began to produce dopamine.

Professor Peter Silburn from the University of Queensland said it was an important breakthrough, as the cells could be easily harvested from patients. He said the next step was to test the cells in primates, then move to human trials in the next three years.

Israeli Government Invests in the Progress Achieved by Adult Stem Cell Research

"In the past month, we have shown proof of concept of our treatment for Parkinson's disease. We are doing serious and important scientific work, and I'm pleased that the Israeli Government continues to acknowledge this, by funding us for the second year.With G-d's help, this grant will enable us to continue our research in order to translate the proof of concept we have into clinical therapies."

Those comments come from Rami Efrati, CEO of BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc., an emerging company developing adult stem cell therapeutic products, derived from autologous (self) bone marrow cells, for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Efrati (photo at left) was responding to the news that the company had been awarded a grant for the second consecutive year from Israel's prestigious Chief Scientist Office (CSO). Last year the grant amounted to $340,000; this year, the company's progress was noted as the CSO increased the grant to $870,000 over the remainder of the current fiscal year to fund the continuing development of treatments for ALS and Parkinson's disease.

England's Catholic Church Supports Ethical Science Research: Dramatic Contrast to Parliament's Recent Irresponsibility

In the wake of the British Parliament's remarkable irresponsibility in passing a Human Fertility and Embryology bill that not only failed to restrict abortion but actually made legal the freakish experimentation on human/animal hybrids, England's Catholic Church is trying to help society understand that science and morality need not be strangers.

In particular, with a grant of £25,000 to Novussanguis, an international research consortium using cord blood and adult stem cells for therapeutic aims, the Church is bringing some much-needed attention to the fantastic successes that life-affirming scientific research is achieving.

By this action, modest though it may be, the Church stands in dramatic contrast to the immoral and inhumane actions of the British government.

Novussanguis is a new international research consortium investigating cord blood and adult stem cells for therapeutic aims. It was created by Professor Colin McGuckin and the research group on cord blood at Newcastle University and the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune in Paris. Unlike embryonic stem cells, cord blood and adult stem cells continue to produce medical cures because of their high differentiation and expansion potential. Indeed, over 80 diseases are already being effectively treated with cord blood stem cells, mostly linked to the blood system or the immune system. However, victims of other diseases affecting the bone marrow, nervous system, heart or metabolism such as juvenile diabetes, are also being helped through adult stem cell procedures.

Adult stem cells can be harvested from several human tissues including the brain, bone marrow, skin, peripheral blood, liver, eyes, pancreas and cord blood.

"We support scientific research that seeks to cure disease and suffering" states the letter announcing the gift and signed by Sean Cardinal Brady (Archbishop of Armagh, president of the Bishops, Conference of Ireland), Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O,Connor (Archbishop of Westminster, president of the Bishops, Conference of England & Wales, shown in photo above), and Keith Patrick Cardinal O,Brien (Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, president of the Bishops, Conference of Scotland).

"The HFE Bill has focused on embryonic stem cell research. In fact, much greater progress has already been made towards clinical therapies using adult stem cells. Other emerging techniques hold potential for good, without creating and destroying human embryos. We are making this donation as a sign of the Church's commitment to science and human good.

"We also welcome the positive engagement with scientists and ethicists last Friday, which identified the need for continued dialogue. This meeting re-enforced the fact that there are profound questions both about the scientific efficacy of proposed techniques and their ethical justification.

"In particular, we would ask: What ethical considerations should limit bio-medical research? Should the government be taking the dramatic step of legalising research on cybrid or hybrid embryos just as new techniques are emerging which would make the use of such hybrids in research redundant? To what extent is the UK in danger of neglecting more promising therapies by focusing too much on embryonic stem cell research?

"Not nearly enough time has been given to discussing these issues and these questions require answers before and not after legislation."

The High Priced Fantasies of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Chelsea Zimmerman does a close and insightful reading of Forbes Magazine's interview with Dr. Jamie Thomson, the scientist who produced the first human embryonic stem cells. She then points out for the rest of us some very significant admissions that Thomson makes about the unwarranted hype surrounding the scientific industry he helped create, the strict limits it is running into regarding the discovery of medical cures, and the primary purposes that have lay behind the jargon all along.

Chelsea, already a busy blogger with Reflections of a Paralytic (her primary blog), Adult Stem Cell Awareness, and a couple of others, has just taken on the reins of Missouri Life News. She's doing some very good work and I encourage you to check her blogs often. Chelsea is certainly one of the young, talented and principled internet journalists whose work bodes well indeed for the emerging pro-life movement of the new century.

The Gallup Poll Rates America's "Cultural Tolerance"

Do you really have any doubts that watching TV, going to movies and reading the MSM newspapers affects the way we think and live? If you do, read through the basics of the latest Gallup "Cultural Tolerance" findings.

The survey voices asked, "Next, I'm going to read you a list of issues. Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each one, please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong."

Now, if you've had any training in philosophy, you'll note several problems inherent in the question itself -- the simplistic, rather silly distancing of legality from morality; the "personally believe" emphasizing a merely subjective approach to truth; "in general" opening a wide door to situational ethics; and the oh-so-tolerant switch from the traditional "right vs wrong" to "acceptable vs wrong."

Indeed, the question oozes an opinion of its own; namely, the "moral" issues we're going to ask you are relevant only for intellectual interest and general conversation. Land sake's, child, we certainly aren't suggesting anybody would take these seriously enough to do anything about them!

Even so, the answers given this flawed question still provide plenty about the state of our culture...and the direction in which it is headed.

Divorce: Morally Acceptable 70%......Morally Wrong 22%

Gambling: Morally Acceptable 63%......Morally Wrong 32%

Death Penalty: Morally Acceptable 62%......Morally Wrong 30%
(The survey doesn't ask about any of the crimes for which the death penalty is traditionally given. But I'm supposing that rape, murder, and treason would still rate a "morally wrong" rating.)

Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos: Morally Acceptable 62%......Morally Wrong 30%
(Of course, relevant in this question is the use of the positive term "medical research" instead of "scientific experimentation.")

Sex between an unmarried man and woman: Morally Acceptable 61%......Morally Wrong 36%

Medical testing on animals: Morally Acceptable 56%......Morally Wrong 38%

Having a baby outside of marriage: Morally Acceptable 55%......Morally Wrong 41%

Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur: Morally Acceptable 54%......Morally Wrong 39%

Doctor-assisted suicide: Morally Acceptable 51%......Morally Wrong 44%

Homosexual relations: Morally Acceptable 48%......Morally Wrong 48%
(As always, there is care taken not to specify exactly what is involved in "homosexual relations." Does anyone doubt that the "morally wrong" rating would be much higher if those "relations" were accurately described?)

Abortion: Morally Acceptable 40%......Morally Wrong 48%
(After all these years, how does NARAL, NOW and the Democrat Party explain that half of Americans still see abortion as "morally wrong" and, by strict application of this data, morally unacceptable?)

Cloning animals: Morally Acceptable 33%......Morally Wrong 61%

Suicide: Morally Acceptable 15%......Morally Wrong 78%

Cloning humans: Morally Acceptable 11%......Morally Wrong 85%

Polygamy: Morally Acceptable 8%......Morally Wrong 90%
(It's interesting that the actual survey has to define polygamy before asking for a response to it.)

Married men and women having an affair: Morally Acceptable 7%......Morally Wrong 91%
(Hmm. Makes you wonder how "Desperate Housewives" remains the Number 1 television series in the country, doesn't it?)

What in the Name of Humanity...

...Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, moving the amendment to ban all admixed embryos, said that mingling animal and human DNA crossed an “ultimate boundary”. He said that exaggerated claims were giving patients false hope and that the dangers of the research were unknown. “In many ways we are like children playing with landmines without any concept of the dangers of the technology we are handling,” he said.

Here's a few responses to the British Parliament's giving an okay to one of the most outrageous immoralities of our time, the creation of "humanimal" embryos, living hybrids of human and animal cells that will be used for research purposes: The Times (U.K.)...the Independent (U.K.)...and the Telegraph (U.K.).

Don't Miss Michael Gerson's "A Phony 'War on Science'"

Michael Gerson's Washington Post article, "A Phony 'War on Science,'" is certainly one of this week's must reads.

There are few things in American politics more irrationally ideological, more fanatically faith-based, than the accusation that Republicans are conducting a "war on science."

According to Hillary Clinton, the Bush administration has declared "open season on open inquiry." "When I am president," she promises, "scientific integrity will not be the exception; it will be the rule."

The exceptions, in this case, are pretty exceptional: Elias Zerhouni, who has reformed the National Institutes of Health with widely praised efficiency; Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who helped set in motion large-scale AIDS treatment in Africa; Francis Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute, who led the effort to map the human genome. The "war on science" recently has allowed some extraordinary achievements.

For the most part, these accusations are a political ploy -- actually an attempt to shut down political debate. Any practical concern about the content of government sex-education curricula is labeled "anti-science." Any ethical question about the destruction of human embryos to harvest their cells is dismissed as "theological" and thus illegitimate.

Liberal views are "objective" while traditional moral convictions are "biased." Public scrutiny of scientific practices is "politicizing" important decisions.

These arguments are seriously made, but they are not to be taken seriously. Does anyone really believe in a science without moral and legal limits? In harvesting organs from prisoners? In systematically getting rid of the disabled?

This last question, alas, does not answer itself. In America, the lives of about nine of 10 children with Down syndrome are ended before birth. In Europe, about 40 percent of unborn children with major congenital disorders are aborted.

All of which highlights a real conflict, a war within liberalism between the idea of unrestricted science in the cause of health and the principle that all men are created equal -- between humanitarianism and egalitarianism...

Good stuff. And that's not all. Finish reading Gerson's "A Phony 'War on Science'" right here.

Couldn't Happen in California: Another ASC Breakthrough

Over and over and over again, we've seen that the promising breakthroughs in stem cell research are coming from scientists investigating adult stem cells. Indeed, beyond promise, adult stem cells are already being used in dozens of different medical treatments that are giving very real, very dramatic help to thousands...right now.

And yet the big money is still being awarded to the "dead end" research that uses human embryos. In fact, in California the millions of dollars appropriated for stem cell research are not allowed to fund any investigations at all that involve adult stem cells. Remarkable.

But though the immorality of embryonic stem cell research hasn't dissuaded the foundations and rich individuals from funding the practice, the scientific realities must, at some point, finally win the day. For instance, here's a report from the U.K. National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting in Edinburgh in which researchers showed progress with a "messaging system" that instructs adult stem cells (ASCs) to contribute to tissue repair in response to chemical signals in the body.

Such a discovery holds great hope for techniques by which ASCs could be "instructed" to repair damaged tissues. Said Professor Cay Kielty of the University of Manchester, "What we have shown is that adult stem cells respond in particular ways to some of the chemical signals in the body. The next stage will be to understand how this messaging system regulates relocation of the MSCs and instructs them to become blood vessel cells. After that, we can look at applying our understanding to develop stem-cell derived therapies for tissue repair."

This research, by the way, was funded by the Medical Research Council of the U.K. And the exciting results were shared openly and proudly at the national meeting of stem cell researchers -- even though the science involved dealt with ASCs and not ESCs.

Couldn't happen in California.

(H/T: Adult Stem Cell Awareness)

Good News for Knees (Thanks to Adult Stem Cells)

Here's a report out of Melbourne, Australia describing the dramatic prospects for adult stem cell treatments for athletic knee injuries and other joint issues stemming from such maladies as osteoarthritis.

The biotech firm, Mesoblast, recently completed successful animal trials which saw the injection of adult stem cells derived from bone marrow, abdominal fat, hip, skin and teeth give greatly increased protection to damaged knee cartilage. And the company is now ready for human application trials, believing that they may be ready to create a "billion-dollar market" for their technique in just a few years.

Professor Silviu Itescu, Mesoblast's director and chief scientific adviser, said the injected stem cells bound themselves to the cartilage, halting its degeneration. "Is it that the cells are protecting the cartilage, or is it accelerating the rate of repair? At the moment, we don't know," he said. "Either way, the result is more cartilage, thicker cartilage."

The human trials, to be conducted both in Australia and the U.S., will involve about 80 patients who have had knee arthroscopes in the previous month.

Of Ideology, Science and Moral Ethics: The Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research Embraces Them All

Certainly, the challenges facing the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research are many and daunting. After all, they are a small, severely underfunded group. And their efforts both to defend the sanctity of human life and to promote humane standards of scientific research and medical care are stridently opposed at every turn.

Nevertheless, NCER has several reasons to be encouraged and the April issue of the NCER (available online right here) clearly shows a few of them.

But the primary foundation for confidence and hope is because the academicians and activists of NCER fight on the side of the angels. They love life and cherish the Creator of life. They embrace truth and, unlike their ideological foes, they do not need to twist facts, obfuscate or distort the science, play word games, or otherwise hide from the plain truths.

The men and women affiliated with the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research know that good science, progressive science, is thoroughly compatible with the great ethical traditions of Western civilization, traditions that rationally, justly and compassionately protect innocent human life as well as such irreducible values as freedom of conscience and the morality of the Hippocratic Oath.

They would deeply appreciate whatever help like-minded citizens could contribute. Financial assistance is very important as are opportunities to speak. And regarding the latter, former Nebraska State Senator and now NCER Executive Director Chip Maxwell is an engaging speaker who offers enlightening, non-threatening presentations on the issues of cloning, stem cell research, genetic engineering and so on. He frequently does these presentations alongside Dr. Sheryl Pitner, Greg Schleppenbach and other top-notch speakers.

Here's the appropriate contact info:

Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, Inc.

PO Box 3463
Omaha, NE 68103-0463
402-690-2299
www.ethicalresearch.net
info@ethicalresearch.net

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life Reviewed

Peter Lawler, author, Professor of Government at Georgia's Berry College, and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, has written for City Journal a penetrating review of Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, by Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen (Doubleday). It is a fine piece, one that does admirably what a book review should do; namely, give an accurate evaluation of the book's theme and quality while also giving insight into the values and opinions of the reviewer.

Lawler likes the book a lot. He writes, "This stunningly able and very important book, I predict, will grow in influence." But he goes further to show just why he likes it: the philosophical penetration into Aristotle and Kant, the sound scientific foundations, the logical reasoning, the measured argument, and the courageous convictions of the authors to apply their conclusions to social policy.

In their bold new book...philosophers Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen defend the proposition that the embryo—the organism that comes into being as the result of fertilization, the union of sperm with oocyte—is in fact a human being. And that means that an embryo has “absolute rights.” An embryo should never be used as a means to pursue someone else’s ends, however laudable or life-saving, they say. Certainly, embryos shouldn’t be killed to assist frustrated parents attempting in vitro fertilization (IVF), or even to further pathbreaking medical research.

The authors stop well short of recommending all of the potential changes in law that would necessarily follow from their argument. All they ask is that scientific research that involves the killing of embryos be outlawed—or, at the very least, that it be denied public funding, and that future IVF procedures be practiced in such a way that they do not produce surplus embryos that are ultimately discarded. The authors oppose what they see as brutality motivated in part by good intentions—brutality they hope to correct with moral reasoning based in scientific knowledge. Open-minded readers should find their case powerful.

There are disagreements between Lawler and the authors of Embryo but they are stated cleanly and without ego. That too is always nice to find in a book review. Again, Dr. Lawler's engaging and very helpful review was published by City Journal and can be read in its entirety right here.

Adult Stem Cell Treatments Helping Wounded Soldiers

Over at Secondhand Smoke, Wesley J. Smith reports on how new adult stem cell treatments are helping American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Britain's Embryology Bill Gets More Bizarre by the Minute

The Telegraph (U.K.) has a puff piece on the Hinxton Group's demand that Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will allow same-sex couples to create their own biological child in a laboratory.

Referring to the HG scientists as "international leaders in embryology research," "influential," and "world-renowned experts," the newspaper never gets around to detailing the life-destroying techniques involved in embryonic stem cell research -- the techniques required to pursue HG's goals of creating its own versions of human sperm, eggs and foetuses within 15 years. Creating sperm from female instead of male cells, another of the scientists' aims, they admit could take a bit longer.

Welcome to the "brave new world" of science -- a science without ethics, without conscience, and without any respect whatsoever to the Creator God.

Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers Admitting Failure

...Lord Patel of Dunkeld, the chairman of the UK National Stem Cell Network and a chancellor at Dundee University, says embryonic stem cell research is simply not working. He conceded in an interview with the Scotsman newspaper that the controversial science may never deliver new treatments for diseases. "In terms of embryonic stem cell therapy, there is currently no such therapy that is available in a large number of patients," he said.

Patel also admitted scientists may never be able to overcome the hurdles -- such as the development of tumors or immune syndrome rejection issues -- that plague embryonic stem cell research and make it risky in humans. "We have to be cautious," he told the Scotsman. "It may not deliver therapy for anything. We may find that stem therapy is quite a risky business. We had a lot of hype about gene therapy, and while we still use it in some cases it did not deliver the great promise we thought it would because of the side effects," he said.

Despite downplaying the prospects for success, Lord Patel told the newspaper he still thought embryonic stem cell research should move forward.

The newspaper also interviewed Dr. Willy Lensch, from the Children's Hospital in Boston, who also confirmed the possibility that the prospect of embryonic stem cell research may never play out. "I could not guarantee to anyone that this work will actually lead to improvements in disease as a definite," he admitted...

Here's more from LifeNews.

Canada's Unborn Victims of Crime Act

Margaret Somerville, the director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, reports on the escalating debate in Canada over Bill C-484, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which would make it a separate crime to injure or kill an unborn child in the course of committing a crime against a woman the accused knew to be pregnant. Common sense? Of course. Straightforward and just? Quite.

And yet, to no one's surprise, the pro-abortion cadre is vociferously opposing the bill. And they are not above using distortions, lies and looniness to try and get their way.

Adult Stem Cells Providing Hope in Battle Against Parkinson's Disease

Here are a couple of important stories collected from Adult Stem Cell Awareness to further encourage your confidence that morally responsible scientific research does indeed provide the best hopes for medical progress. Both stories concern research to help victims of Parkinson's Disease.

The first concerns clinical trials conducted in Peru which have established very promising results using bone marrow stem cells from the patients' own bodies. (The original item is here.)

And the second comes from Yale School of Medicine where researchers injected uterine stem cells to trigger growth of new brain cells in mice with Parkinson's disease. "Previously, we were able to coax these multipotent stem cells to differentiate into cartilage cells," said lead author Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and section chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Yale School of Medicine. "Now we have found that we can turn uterine stem cells into neurons that can boost dopamine levels and partially correct the problem of Parkinson's disease."

As Adult Stem Cell Awareness comments, "The latter story surely debunks the theory that ASCs are unable to differentiate into other specialized cells. And each disprove the notion that the use of human embryos is necessary for the advancement of stem cell research and the development of stem cell treatments, therapies and cures."