The week was buzzing with stem cell news. Sadly, The Scientist blog has a piece claiming that Embryonic Stem Cells are Still the Gold Standard.

“”We need new human embryonic stem cells,” said Jaenisch. “They differ enormously from iPS cells,” and understanding the reprogrammed cells will be impossible without good human embryonic stem cells. In particular, these two types of cells are derived in completely different ways and therefore, a clear understanding of how safe iPS cells are, or how they may behave in therapies, is still a long way off. “

Of course the story below has nothing to do with embryonic stem cells but all to do with umbilical cord blood banking - which we need to get behind and start banking a whole lot more of cord blood! Leukemias are often treated with stem cell transplants from cord blood - which is why the couple below are going to create a “savior sibling” for their little girl. Unfortunately, that means they will make embryos in the lab and implant the donor ‘matched’ baby in the mother’s womb. And most likely discard the others . . .

Ethics of having a baby to harvest stem cells questioned:

Maria and Rick Kent want to do all they can to save their 23-month-old daughter from leukemia.

That desire is propelling the Simi Valley, Calif., couple down an intricate and controversial path. They plan on having another child to increase the chances that Hailey Joy will be able to find a match if she needs a second stem cell transplant.

We also learned this last week that the stem cell field has been energized and continues to grow. However, it is because of the breakthroughs in iPSC research that has prompted this ethical surge. At a meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Philadelphia tlast 2,500 delegates attended, something ISSCR president Dr. George Daley finds encouraging.

“The discovery last year of induced pluripotent stem cells — ordinary skin cells that can be transformed into something that looks very much like an embryonic stem cell — has energized the field, Dr. George Daley said.”

And Yamanaka has just announced that he has made improvement on his iPSC technique.

“In Saturday’s closing session of the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Researchers, Yamanaka reported that he had combined all six genes used by his lab and Thomson’s and had been able to double the reprogramming efficiency.

Yamanaka also reported that he had been able to reprogram liver and stomach cells in addition to skin cells.

Some of the genes used are known to cause cancer, and Yamanaka reported that reprogramming has led to tumors in a significant number of mice. Finding an alternative delivery system to viruses is “a technical issue,” he said, adding after the meeting that he expects to see it resolved relatively soon.”

Yamanaka, along with Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell have just been awarded the Shaw Prize. The prize in Life Sciences and Medicine is awarded for, “Discoveries in the biomedical sciences and innovations in clinical medicine have led to significant victories in our longstanding war against illness and suffering.”

Is the juggernaut of therapeutic cloning grinding slowly to a halt? Recently (Tuesday, May 6) a bill authorising it in Western Australia failed on a conscience vote in the upper house by a vote of 18 to 15. WA Premier Alan Carpenter may use it a trigger for an early poll. For local supporters of the controversial technique, it was a bitter blow. Similar acts were preceded by impassioned debate in Canberra and in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT - but in the end therapeutic cloning always cruised through. (ScienceAlert)

The key to coaxing cells to regenerate might be to make things a little rough for them. Thomas Webster, a bioengineer at Brown University, has been developing implantable materials with nanoscale textures to mimic the roughness of living tissues. (Technology Review)

In an approach that could become a new treatment for the 10 to 20 percent of people whose broken bones fail to heal, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that transplantation of adult stem cells can improve healing of fractures. (ScienceDaily)

Inspired by a chance discovery during another experiment, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have created a small molecule that stimulates nerve stem cells to begin maturing into nerve cells in culture. This finding might someday allow a person’s own nerve stem cells to be grown outside the body, stimulated into maturity, and then re-implanted as working nerve cells to treat various diseases, the researchers said. (Eureka! Science News)

Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. (PhysOrg)

Political controversy may have slowed the pace of stem cell science, but the field is still promising enough to attract many talented researchers, stem cell experts said on Saturday. (Washington Post

A loophole in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill could permit some reproductive cloning without the need for fresh primary legislation, the Government has admitted. (Times Online)

Bioethics (July 2008, Vol. 22 Issue 6) is now available by subscription only.