A few years ago this would have been a huge story. No more. The wind is slackening behind the embryonic stem cell research sails.

Still, it is worth pointing out what the Times reported, and then, what they–so unsurprisingly–left out of the story:

The scientists, at the biotechnology company Novocell, turned the stem cells into cells that produced insulin in the mice. Those cells kept blood sugar in check after the mice’s own insulin-producing cells were destroyed…Still, a small number of the mice developed tumors, and some experts said the cells might not be well-characterized enough for use in people. In any event, Novocell said it would be several years before any human tests could begin.

The story proceeds to discuss some alternatives, such as islet cell transplantation.

But completely missing in the story are the far more advanced methods of treating diabetes with adult stem cells and other substances. Fourteen human patients were able to go off insulin with a combination of blood stem cell therapy and a one-time immune suppression. As I recall, the NYT didn’t think that story worthy of being reported even though it was published in a peer reviewed medical journal. Yet, a mouse study makes the paper. How telling.

Last year adult stem cells showed great promise in treating Type 2 diabetes in mice.

A Harvard study showing that Freund’s Complete Adjuvant, a mixture of water, oil and parts of dead bacteriam over stimulates the immune system cells that are attacking the pancreas, cured Type 1 diabetes in mice, has been confirmed in follow up reports. In an earlier study, adding adult stem cells from the spleen provided increased efficacy rates.

Perhaps the reason the story was not the subject of a banner headline is that the adult/umbilical cord blood stem cell and the recent IPSC breakthroughs have penetrated into the public consciousness at last. Or to put it another way, there is little use in beating a dying horse.

Toxicology experiments on nanomaterials often seem to run the same way: put some nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, or other kind of nanosized structures in a petri dish, water column, soil sample, or lab test tube of choice. Then expose daphnids, microbes, zebrafish, pig lung cells, human skin cells, or other model organisms to the new and exciting materials. Sit back and see what happens. (Nanowerk)

Created 60 years ago as a cornerstone of the British welfare state, the National Health Service is devoted to the principle of free medical care for everyone. But recently it has been wrestling with a problem its founders never anticipated: how to handle patients with complex illnesses who want to pay for parts of their treatment while receiving the rest free from the health service. (New York Times)

A state legislative committee has modified the stem cell bill headed for floor debate, removing a section about reproductive cloning that had irked groups opposing any use of human embryos for cloning purposes. (AP)

The point of contention — and one virtually certain to be repeated when the two Democratic survivors face off at a debate in Texas Thursday night — is whether the government should mandate that individuals carry health insurance. Both Obama and Clinton propose roughly the same set of subsidies to make this insurance affordable for lower-income and middle-income Americans. Both candidates also require that all children should be covered. But only Clinton extends this mandate to all adults. (Salon News)

The bill, which still has to be approved in a second reading to take effect, fuelled passionate debates in Luxembourg, where Catholic values remain firmly entrenched. The medical community was mostly against it. (AFP)

The ballot proposal would reverse part of a constitutional amendment narrowly approved by voters in 2006 that ensured all federally allowed stem cell research and treatments can occur in Missouri. That measure allowed the use of an embryonic cloning technique, which the latest proposal seeks to ban. (AP)

Scientists reported on Wednesday that they were able to control diabetes in mice by harnessing human embryonic stem cells. The work raised the prospect that the embryonic cells might one day be used to provide insulin-producing replacement cells to treat the disease in people. (New York Times)