In her new book, Sex, Science and Stem Cells, DeGette seeks to relate the harrowing drama of her defense of abortion rights and advocacy of stem-cell research, and especially to describe, as she sees it, the great Republican assault on science in America. (National Review Online)

There are two aspects of neuroethics, unequally represented in this collection. The first is that of the ethics of neuroscience: When, and how, should we intervene pharmacologically in brain states? If, in neuroimaging for the purposes of research, we discover an abnormality in our volunteer subject’s brain, should we tell them? At what point can a brain-damaged patient be called legally dead? The other aspect is that of the neuroscience of ethics: What are the implications of our understanding of the brain when it comes to our ethical reflection? Does our current understanding of the neural constituents of moral reasoning support Kant, Mill or Aristotle? Or is such an attempt to naturalize ethics mistaken from the very start? (Metapsychology)

An interesting ESCR success was published in the journal Blood. ES cells were morphed into blood, offering the potential of greatly easing blood shortages and making transfusions safer for patients. From the story:

In the new study, researchers were able to make as many as 100 billion red blood cells–enough to fill two or three collection tubes–from a single plate of embryonic stem cells.

After allowing the stem cells to begin the earliest stages of embryonic development, the researchers prompted some of them to grow into red blood cells by exposing them to a variety of proteins. Up to 65% of the resulting cells matured to the point at which they shed their nucleus, which allows them to take on the distinctive doughnut shape of circulating red blood cells, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. and the study’s senior author.

The team, which also included researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., produced blood of types A-positive, A-negative, B-positive, B-negative and O-positive. The method was 100 times more efficient than previous efforts, said Eric Bouhassira, a professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. But most of the cells had embryonic or fetal versions of globin, the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Only a relative few appeared to contain the adult globin that would be needed by patients, he said.

“Whether they would be good enough for transfusion is very unclear,” said Bouhassira, who wasn’t involved in the study. Lanza said the research team was conducting more experiments to see whether the stem cells would produce more adult globin if given more time to mature in the lab.

Even with substantial improvements, the method faces another big hurdle. Roger Dodd, director of the American Red Cross’ Holland Laboratory in Rockville, Md., said that producing blood in the lab could cost thousands of dollars per unit–far too expensive to replace the 14 million pints of red blood cells that are transfused every year. “It’s a rather ambitious goal,” Dodd said.

A few points:

This is from Advanced Cell Technology, along with others. With ACT, it is always wise to trust but verify, since the hype is often a bigger deal than the actual experiment. However, Blood is certainly a reputable journal.

Second, while the story says that adult stem cells are not as efficient in this process, it is interesting to note that the change to blood cells came from embryonic stem cells that were not then truly stem cells but had begun differentiation.

Third, I wonder if IPSCs would work as well.

Fourth, the cost factor could easily prevent this from ever going into clinical application even if the existing kinks are solved.

Fifth: I will bet the cells used were Bush approved, since ACT is bankrupt and thus, these researchers probably received an NIH grant.

Finally, if ESCR/blood ever became widely acceptable, would it have to be labeled so that those with ethical objections could refuse it?

UPDATE: Re Bush-approved lines, I checked with my sources. One of the ESC lines was indeed Bush-approved . Another line was one that Harvard had established privately, and two from lines created at ACT.

Tainted blood scandals have been investigated throughout the world — in France, Canada, Japan and elsewhere — leading to some convictions of health officials and many compensation packages for infected hemophiliacs, but there has been no detailed probe in Britain until now. One inquiry under way will likely end in a nonbinding report, while the other is an official investigation by the Scottish government that could lead to charges filed against individuals. (Fosters)

Now, a stem-cell scientist at UC Riverside has devised a method of growing hESCs in the lab that uses no animal-derived materials – an important advance in the use of hESCs for future medical purposes. (Science Daily)

FDA and pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions are collaborating on a two-year, pharmacogenomics-based study that will examine the relationship of patients’ genetic composition with the medications they are prescribed, the Wall Street Journal reports. (California Healthline)

Working-age Americans are facing mounting problems when it comes to affording health care, a result of what analysts are calling a “perfect storm” of economic woes. (HealthDay)